Ignorance is Bliss
by VeilandSparks
Summary: Sequel to Katy Cupit! Lucie goes to Hogwarts and makes friends with Ginny Weasley. Things will make way more sense if you read the prequel first but you don't have to. Please read and review!
1. Prologue

Hello again my dear dear friends! So this is, word for word, the same prologue as Katy's but it is the same family. So then. Let us get on with things!

_Prologue_

_There is an old family, a family that has been in the wizarding world for centuries.  
They were always different than the other families. This family is a matriarchal family.  
When a women in that family gets married, she keeps her last name.  
She always has. And any daughters she may have, must take her name as well.  
This family has old magic in them. Love.  
There is a muggle myth that came from this family. The myth that there is a small baby with  
a bow and arrow who makes people fall in love if they are hit with Cupid's bow.  
Muggles overheard a pair of wizards discussing  
the newest arrival in the Cupit family, and thus came the nymph Cupid.  
This family has a powerful protection against many spells. They are affected in a  
terrible permanent, but unusual way to the Cruciatus Curse.  
The affect is different for each, and depends on the caster  
The family is slowly dying out. Many have been killed, there is a good deal of jealousy.  
They can create love. This was particularly useful in the stages  
of history in which marriages were arranged  
a Cupit girl could create the feelings that will grow into love._

There are only two Cupits left.

Hope you like the story!

Lily


	2. Chapter 1

_And so the real story begins.... dun dun dunnnnnn. _

_So. A quick reminder of where we left off. Lucie showed her magic and Katy was trying to decide what to do. Should she tell her family the secret or not? But this story will not be told from katy;s POV. So. Katy did not tell anyone anything. At any point. Till now........ _

**The Bold within the chapter is stuff taken directly out of JKR's books and I do not in any way own it!**

**Chapter 1**

Lucie Cupit was reading a magazine on the floor of the living room. Her mum was reading a book on the couch and her step-dad was on the phone with his sister, Ellen, who had moved to America with her two sons when Lucie was seven. Lucie's younger sister, Maddie, was playing with toys on the floor near Lucie. Lucie was eleven years old, though she would be turning twelve in a month and a half. It was the middle of July, her last July before she went to secondary school. Her last July before she and her friends were all getting split up. Most of them were going to different schools in September and Lucie and her friends were trying to spend as much time together as possible. Lucie was waiting for her best friend Sophie to come; they were going to see a movie in town that afternoon.

"I'll get it!" Lucie jumped up at the sound of the doorbell. "It's probably Sophie." Lucie ran into the hall and opened the front door. It was most certainly not Sophie.

It was an old man. An old man with very long silver hair and a very long silver beard and half-moon spectacles and bright blue eyes. He was dressed quite oddly, He was wearing long robes of a lavender purple color. Lucie blinked a few times, wondering if she was going crazy because surely no sane man would knock of the door of a stranger's house dressed like that.

"Hello…?" She said nervously. Then it occurred to her he probably was an old, eccentric retired man who volunteered for some sort of weird organization and was likely to ask her for money.

"How are you today, Miss Cupit?" The man asked her pleasantly, as if they had known each other for years. Lucie was surprised. Usually people, though it didn't happen that often; she wasn't even a teenager yet, called Miss Peters if they called her anything other than Lucie. She didn't quite know why this man would, first of all, know who she was, and, second of all, know that her last name was Cupit.

"Fine." She answered quickly. She knew it would be polite to return the question but she was too startled by his appearance to do much else for a few minutes. Finally she staggered out, "how are you?"

"Quite well, thank you." he responded with a smile. He didn't seem to find it strange that she was staring at him like he was from another planet. "I was rather hoping I might get to speak with you a little while this afternoon. Have you got time?"

"I'm going to the cinema with my friend." She told him and then internally slapped herself. She was not supposed to tell strangers about what she was going to do.

"Well, this is rather important, do you think we might at least talk for a little while. I think I saw on my way that the next showing at the cinema isn't for quite some time."

"I'm not allowed to invite strangers inside." Lucie told him.

"Well, then, would you mind asking your mother to come out here? I daresay she'll be interested in being part of this conversation as well."

"She probably will." Lucie agreed wondering what on earth this man wanted to talk to her about. "I'll be right back…" She said quietly and shut the door as the man on the porch began to hum to himself. "Mum," she called. "I may have just imagined it, but I am pretty sure there is an old man wearing a purple dress who wants to talk to us on the porch." She said as she walked into the living room. Her mother looked curiously up at her. "He asked if I would 'ask my mother to come out' so here I am, asking my mother to come out front." Katy Cupit stood up and walked with Lucie down the hall, brushing her long black hair out of her face as she went. She opened the door and nearly fell backwards onto Lucie. "Mum…?"

"Katy, it's been too long!" the man said with a warm smile and Lucie froze. This man had said Katy. He had said it had been too long. He knew her mother from somewhere. And he hadn't seen her in a long time. Could he possibly be from her mother's mysterious past?

"Professor," Katy nodded in greeting, her voice barely above a whisper. Lucie was sure she heard wrong. This man was a professor? He looked distinctly lacking in common sense, if you asked Lucie, so how was he supposed to teach other people? The professor continued to smile pleasantly at Katy at Lucie. "It… it has been… a while." Katy stammered out finally. Then it seemed to occur to her that they were all standing on the front porch. "I suppose you'd like to come in."

"Unless Lucie really must go right this minute." He smiled. How did he know her first name?

"No, Lucie, why don't you call Sophie and tell her something's come up and you can't go to the movies with her."

"Mum!"

"Lucie, this is important. Your dad's done with the phone now." Katy had turned almost completely white. Lucie frowned but slunked off to the kitchen to call Sophie. She got outside the door to the living room, it was open and she could see and hear inside, though no one else had noticed she was there. She paused for a moment to watch the scene in front of her. Her mother was sitting stiffly on the couch and James was doing his very best not to gape at the mysterious professor. Maddie, who was only two, had grabbed one of Lucie's old dolls and was trying to show it to the professor.

"Lily." Maddie beamed up at the man who frowned for the tiniest second, staring at the ragged and beaten up doll, then glanced up at Katy who was looking at her feet. After a moment, Maddie toddled back to where she had been and the professor asked Katy a question that didn't make any sense to Lucie.

"I must say, I was surprised when we found you here. Have you been living in a Muggle neighborhood all these years? We would have just sent a letter but we were terribly confused and I thought it would be best if I came in person." Lucie gaped at him. What _was _he talking about? Lucie's stepfather looked like he was almost laughing.

"Yes, I have, Professor." Katy said and it sounded like it hurt her to say it. "And I would appreciate if you didn't bring it up just like that. Lucie doesn't know anything."

"What is going on, Mum?" Lucie stepped into the room. "Do you know him?" She glanced at the strange professor with the misguided dress sense.

"I do." Katy said.

"From what?" Lucie couldn't imagine a setting in which her mother would be around someone like this. Lucie also knew he couldn't be some odd, eccentric college professor because her mother had never been to college.

"I first met your mother, well, perhaps first saw is better, when she was eleven." The professor said happily.

"Professor! She doesn't know anything, please let me do this. At least at the beginning." He nodded and gestured for Katy to continue. Lucie had never been more confused in her life.

"Since you were eleven?" Maybe they all dressed weird in the town her mother had come from and her mother had just gotten normal clothes when she had left it.

"Yes," Katy said slowly. "He was the headmaster of my school. The school I went to from when I was eleven to when I was seventeen." She gulped.

"You told me you were homeschooled." James said with a frown.

"You wouldn't have believed me." Katy said.

"Well what should I believe now?" he asked, throwing a skeptical look at the professor.

"Just listen. I'll tell you some of the things you have been asking me for years about."

"Just some?" James asked, frowning again.

"Yes. Just some." Katy told him, looking him straight in the eye. Then she turned back to Lucie.

"What school did you go to? I thought your town had, like, four people in it."

"Well, technically that town only sort of exists. There is a town with that name, but I didn't live there and it has more people than I said. But," she added with a small smile. "Not by much."

"Have you told me anything that's the truth?" Lucie demanded.

"Yes." Katy said. "I just didn't want to hurt you with the whole truth, Lu."

"Well then try it now." Lucie didn't know why she felt so angry. "What's this school you went to."

"It's called Hogwarts." Katy said.

"_Hogwarts?_" Lucie asked with a snort. "Strange name,"

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Katy said and Lucie stopped snorting. Then she burst out laughing.

"Did you want to be a magician?" She giggled.

"No, I was a witch." Lucie could see that she had ruffled her mother's pride a little and that confused her more than ever.

"What?" She said quickly.

"I was a witch. We learned magic. Not like pulling rabbits out of hats, real magic." Lucie began to giggle again. "Lucie, stop laughing. Why would Professor Dumbledore come here to back me up on a joke I don't even want to tell in the first place?" Lucie stopped laughing.

"So, if you went to this Hogwarts place, why don't you do magic every day?" Lucie asked and she noticed that Professor Dumbledore (such an odd name) looked quickly at Katy when she did.

"I couldn't anymore."

"Did you flunk out of school?" James asked with a little laughter in his voice but he still looked very suspicious.

"I did not flunk out of school." They had hurt her pride again. "It just didn't feel right to do magic anymore. I'd had… had a hardish few years and I just needed to start again. Ever heard of a mid-life crisis? It was like that."

"How can you have a mid-life crisis when you're twenty-two?" Lucie asked.

"Trust me, you can, and it isn't pretty." Katy said.

"Mum, why on earth, even though I agree it would be weird for him to come just to watch you tell us something strange," she pointed at Dumbledore, "why on earth should we believe that you went to a school for magic and know how to do magic? Or even that magic exists?"

"Professor? I don't know what you usually do to convince the Muggleborns that you aren't joking, but now would be a good time to pull that out." Lucie had no idea what a Muggleborn was but didn't have time to dwell on it because Professor Dumbledore has just pulled a thin wooden stick out of the inside pocket of his coat.

"Have you got some small object I might use?" He asked Katy.

"Any of Maddie's toys over there are fine." She said. He nodded and pointed the stick over towards Maddie.

"_Accio _red block." He said and, Lucie's mouth almost hit the floor it dropped so fast, the little red block had zoomed over towards Dumbledore and off the floor, landing neatly in his hand. "_Engorgio_," he then said and the little block swelled until it was nearly twice its original size. Lucie stared while James blinked rapidly and Maddie pointed in awe at her toy.

"_What _was that?" Lucie asked.

"Magic." Katy said softly, looking at the floor.

"So you went to school to learn to make things bigger and fly and stuff?" Lucie asked.

"That's not all you'll learn at Hogwarts, Miss Cupit," Dumbledore said, for Katy was still looking at the floor, quite obviously wishing to be anywhere but where she was. "You will learn how to brew potions, how to Transfigure objects from one thing to another, how to Charm objects to do various interesting things, how to fly on a broomstick, the history of the magical world and plenty of other things that escape my mind just now."

"Did you just say 'fly on a broomstick'?" Lucie asked, doing her best not to giggle.

"I did indeed." Dumbledore answered seriously.

"Professor, can I talk to you for a minute?" Katy said suddenly and without waiting for an answer marched into the kitchen. Dumbledore excused himself and followed her. Perhaps she wanted them to hear, or perhaps she had forgotten, or perhaps she just hadn't noticed, but when Dumbledore left the door from the living room to the kitchen open, Katy did nothing to close it. And because of this, Lucie and James were able to hear everything they said.

"How can she possibly go? Do you realize what life will be like for her if people know the truth about her?" Lucie frowned at her step-father, what was so wrong with her? He looked as confused as she felt.

"No one will know the truth, I'm sure everyone has forgotten and even if they haven't, she looks exactly like you." Lucie looked at her father, this man was clearly off his rocker, Lucie and her mother did not look the same. Sure, they had the same face, but their hair made them look startlingly different. "There's no reason you couldn't make up another father for her, if you are uncomfortable with allowing all to know her real father."

Lucie and James stared at each other. This was one of the most interesting and infuriating conversations Lucie had ever listened to. She edged forward, not wanting to miss a syllable.

"James is her real father. Right in there. She knew it before I did. She called him Daddy long before he and I were married. He is her father and I don't want anyone else to ever tell her anything different."

"Katy, I'm sure everything will be fine. It's not like your marriage was proclaimed far and wide, if I remember correctly you had a tiny wedding. I'm sure there are people who were never even aware you were married to him."

Lucie had never wanted to hear a name so desperately as she did now. Who was this him? Her mother's first husband. It was looking like perhaps he hadn't died. At least, not in the innocent way Lucie had always assumed.

"What if she goes off to school and becomes Harry's best friend? Their fathers used to joke about them getting married one day. If she wants to invite him over during the summer break one year, I don't think I could handle it! I couldn't have those two people in my house."

"Two people?" Lucie whispered to her father who was, as her mother and Professor Dumbledore were still discussing, not really her father. "I thought it was just this Harry person." James shrugged.

"Don't you think Harry's parents would like to know that you still get to see him?"

"But I don't!" Lucie could hear that her mother was crying. "The last time I saw him he was one year old! Now he looks like… like his father, I'm sure…" the crying was making it harder to understand. "He still has her eyes, though, doesn't he?"

"He does." Dumbledore said gently. "But because of Lucie's birthday, we had to wait a year to admit her. Harry started school last year."

"They won't be in the same class?"

"No, but I think it's safe to assume that they will be in the same house."

"Professor?" Katy said all of a sudden. "Why are you the one who came? I would have thought it was someone else who came."

"It usually is. But I thought there was probably something different going on here because I knew you were a witch, but there was no magic in your house except for Lucie's accidental magic. I wondered if maybe you had given her up for adoption or if you had lost your ability to do magic, I thought there might be some sort of problem and I wanted to know what was going on." He answered.

"We're all fine." Katy answered shortly. "Although, probably about half the accidental magic you got from this house was me. Lucie and I both confuse James with things we sometimes do."

"How _are _you doing with no magic? I didn't think it was possible for someone to decide not to use magic anymore."

"Well, it hasn't been that hard. It's just, sometimes, like being a kid. Every once in a while, I would drop a pile of plates and shout 'stop!' or 'no!' at them and they would freeze in midair. Things like that, it terrified James at first. But then we made it a bit of a joke. He used to tell me there was probably some sort of unusual magnetic current in me that made me able to do that. But Lucie would tell all her friends from school that I was a good witch." Katy added sadly. "She told them I was a witch the first time, but then apparently they all asked why I didn't have green skin and a hooked nose, so she said I was a good witch."

"Katy, you have to let her choose. I promise that who her father is will not limit her at Hogwarts." Dumbledore said softly.

Katy walked back into the living room and Lucie and James both jumped about nine feet and attempted to pretend they had not been listening.

"It's up to you, Lucie." Katy said. "Professor, I suppose you have a letter for her, don't you?"

"Yes, right here." Dumbledore smiled at Lucie and pulled out a thick envelope addressed to her. She opened it up and began to read.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL  
_of _WITCHCRAFT _and _WIZARDRY

Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE  
_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,  
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

Dear Miss Cupit,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been  
accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.  
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

**_Minerva McGonagall_**

Minerva McGonagall,  
_Deputy Headmistress_

"I haven't got an owl." Lucie said.

"What?"

"I haven't got an owl. It says they await my owl. I'm not sure what that means, but I don't have an owl."

"You won't be needing to send an owl, because Professor Dumbledore is here. In the wizarding world, mail is carried by owl, these letters are sent to wizarding children as well, and they send back an owl saying whether or not they are coming to Hogwarts." Katy told her.

"Who in their right mind would say they wouldn't want to go to magic school?" Lucie asked her mother.

"I take that means you will be accepting your place?"

"Of course I will! Wait till I tell Sophie, she won't believe it!"

"Lucie!" Katy was suddenly very stern. "Lucie you are not allowed to tell Sophie. You can't tell any of your friends where you are going to school in the fall. No Muggles are allowed to know magic exists, except, of course, those who have children or spouses at Hogwarts."

"What am I supposed to tell them then?" Lucie asked, frowning up at her mother. "And what's a Muggle?"

"A Muggle is someone who is not magical." Katy answered.

"Like me?" James said.

"Like you." Katy nodded.

"So what do I tell my friends?" Lucie asked again.

"We'll come up with another school we're sending you to. You can tell them all it's the school I went to and it's some fancy old school that you have to be the child of someone who went there to get in." Katy shrugged. "A few of your friends are going off to boarding school, also, right?"

"Yeah," Lucie said.

"And Sophie is one of them?"

"Yeah,"

"So both of you will make new friends this year, I don't think it will be a problem."

"Maybe," Lucie said, but she wasn't sure. She didn't feel good about lying to all her friends about her school. "Why didn't you tell me about magic?"

"Lucie, not now, later."

"No. Mum, you should have told me!"

"Lucie," Lucie could see she was embarrassing her mother in front of Professor Dumbledore, but she didn't care. "Lucie, we'll take when the headmaster has gone. Not now."

"Headmaster?" Lucie asked.

"Yes, Miss Cupit, I'm the headmaster of Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore."

"Headmaster?" Lucie didn't care much about acting a bit bratty in front of some teacher, but the headmaster was an entirely different thing. She glanced down at the letter in her hand, sure enough, Albus Dumbledore was listed at the top as headmaster. "Sorry." She turned red and quickly sat down.

"Is there anything else, Professor?" Katy asked. "I don't really know how to do this. I'm sure you're better at telling people about magic than I am."

"In normal circumstances, yes, however this time I agree with Lucie. I think you ought to be the one to tell her about our world." Dumbledore said pleasantly, but you could see in his face that he was entirely serious and telling her, although gently, that he was done and she had to finish. "So, Miss Cupit, until the first of September." He bowed once to the three of them and then left the room. As soon as he had shut the door, there was a small pop to be heard if anyone had been listening, but no one was listening and no one noticed that the door was never opened and shut, no one noticed that Professor Dumbledore did not let himself out the normal way.

"Mum, how could you have kept this a secret from me?"

"Why did you never tell us this, Kate?"

"It didn't, _no_; Lucie, listen, then you can ask questions, it didn't feel right. I told you, my life had been hard for a few years and I started to blame magic for it. Maybe I was wrong, I don't know, but I blamed magic for everything bad in my life and I wanted to get away. I was afraid I would lose Lucie so I ran away." Lucie was confused, intrigued and a bit scared, why would her mother have lost her? Was her mother a bad mother, had she done something wrong, who was trying to take Lucie away from her? But there was something more pressing to be asked.

"And _what,_" Lucie said, a scowl clouding her face. "Was all that about my dad? Is there something wrong with him?"

"No!" Katy almost shouted. "No, he's dead! I've told you!"

"But _why_?" Lucie asked. "What happened to him that you think people will hate me for what he did?"

"No, Lucie, I'm sorry, but I'm not going to tell you. Just trust me that it will be bad if you go around asking. But, as you apparently overheard, not too many people know who your father is. Please just do this for me. I will tell you one day. But not yet." Katy was pleading with Lucie. "I promise. But you have to promise me, too. Promise me you won't go looking for things about your father?"

"Promise." Lucie scowled darker.

"Thank you. And now, if you'd like, I will go up to the attic and retrieve all of my magical things and show them to you."

"Is _that _why we aren't allowed up there? Because you've got it full of magic stuff?"Lucie gaped at her mother. "Yes, I want to see it."

It took a good portion of the afternoon to bring all the boxes of things into the living and then Katy began opening them. Lucie watched avidly the whole time and then, all of a sudden, noticed that on the book her mother was pulling out of the box, the cover had a picture of a man on a broomstick, but he was flying, really flying, he was moving and the clouds behind him were also moving as he flew faster and faster.

"Mum…" Lucie frowned, pointing at the book. Her mum looked over at it and smiled. "Mum, why is it moving?"

"That's magic, Lucie, it the wizarding world, pictures move. Painted portraits can even talk."

"Portraits can _talk_?" Lucie raised her eyebrows.

"Yes, they keep the personality of their subject."

"So, like, if there was a portrait painted of you and then you died, I could still talk to you?" Lucie asked.

"Yes…" Katy frowned at Lucie, as though she didn't approve of the question. "Yes, I suppose so, it wouldn't be exactly the same, but yes, I guess so."

"Weird." Lucie shrugged, "And what's Qui… Quid… how do you say this?" The title of the book had a word Lucie had never seen before, it was called _Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland_.

"Quidditch." Katy said easily. "It's the wizarding sport, you'll get to see it at Hogwarts, there are House teams. Everyone in the wizarding world loves it, I guess it's a bit like football in the Muggle world."

"I wish you wouldn't call it 'the Muggle world', that's _my _world."

"Not anymore, love." Katy smiled. "You wanted to be a witch, Muggles come with the territory."

"Where do we get these?" Lucie held up the letter Professor Dumbledore had given her, it had a supply list on the back that bewildered Lucie. "I don't think we have any of these are our bookstore." She grinned. "I'm sure I'd remember it if I'd seen _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1_."

"We have to go to Diagon Alley."

"Where?" Lucie blinked. "Isn't that a direction?" She giggled.

"No, it's a place, Diagon Alley. It's in London." Katy said but she smiled too. "It's a cool place, you'll see."

"Can Dad come or are… Muggles… unable to get there?" Lucie asked nervously.

"No, Dad can come, but he needs a witch or wizard to help him." Katy responded.

James frowned over at Katy and Lucie guessed the idea of needing someone else in order to physically get to a street was not one he was that fond of.

* * *

Lucie was excited. But she was still angry with her mother for concealing the existence of the entire magical _world_from her. But they were going to Diagon Alley to buy Lucie's school things and Lucie would get to see the magical world for herself. She had never been so excited in her entire life. James had opted out of going with them; he said he would take care of Maddie for the day. Lucie was the tiniest bit jealous of Maddie. Maddie would grow up with magic and Lucie had not.

"Are you ready, Lu?" Katy called.

"Am I ready?" Lucie burst out. "Of course I'm ready! I've been ready my entire life, I just didn't know it!" She beamed at her mother who smiled sadly back at her.

"Well, then, I suppose now is the time to go." Katy said. "Now you have to promise me you won't go wandering off without me, alright?"

"Promise." Lucie said immediately, not really sure what she had agreed to, she was too excited to really pay her mother close attention.

Katy sighed and the two of them walked outside.

"How are we getting there?"

"Driving." Katy said.

"How do magical people travel?" Lucie asked eagerly.

"We either Floo or Appirate or fly with brooms, most people just Appirate."

"I haven't got any clue what Floo or Appirate means. Do people really fly on brooms?" Lucie giggled and Katy nodded. "That's so… so fairytale-ish."

"A lot of Muggle fairytales have some real origin." Katy told her, thinking mostly of the Muggle story that surrounds her own family, but she wasn't going to tell Lucie about that just yet.

"Anyway, so what's Floo and Arripate?" Lucie asked as she climbed into the front seat beside her mother in the car.

"_Appirate_." Katy corrected her with a smile. "Flooing is traveling by fireplace, if a fireplace is connected to the Floo Network, we can use Floo Powder, you have to throw it onto the flames then step into the flames and say where you want to go and you come out in another fireplace." Lucie burst out laughing. "Honest, Lu, people travel like that." Katy smiled. "I suppose to someone who has spent their whole life in the Muggle world, that is a bit strange. And Appirating is when you disappear in one place and reappear out of thin air somewhere else."

"Let's do that!" Lucie grinned, _that_ was real magic.

"Not so fast. I haven't Appirated in about ten years, I don't know if I'm still able to do it and you aren't allowed to until your seventeen. You have to be of age to learn to Appirate."

"Then don't I have to be eighteen?" Lucie asked, frowning. You weren't allowed to do anything fun until you were eighteen.

"No, in the wizarding world you come of age when you're seventeen."

"Excellent!" Lucie grinned, she would come of age in just six years.

They pulled onto the highway and began the drive toward London. Lucie rolled down the window and tried to imagine what Diagon Alley would look like but she had no idea. After what seemed like years, they finally got there, Charring Cross Road, Lucie looked around, this looked like the last place you would find a magical world. There wasn't anything magical on Charring Cross Road that Lucie could see.

"Is there something special I should be seeing?" She asked her mother.

"See that pub there, the Leaky Cauldron?" there was some sadness and a bit of pain in Katy's voice as she spoke but Lucie had no way of knowing that her mother still connected the Leaky Cauldron with the summer after her fifth year as she knew nothing about her mother's life at Hogwarts.

"Yeah," Lucie said. "Looks a bit shabby though, doesn't it?"

"It's very famous." Katy smiled and Lucie raised her eyebrows, _that _place was famous? Maybe the magical world was a bit drabber than Lucie had thought it would be.

"So anyone can get in then?"

"No, Muggles can't see the Leaky Cauldron."

"Then how would Dad get in here?"

"Well if he's with us then he can, but all these Muggles, they don't know to look for it so they just don't see it. Dad would know to look for it." Katy said. "Let's go." She began to walk and Lucie followed her. As they approached, Katy pulled out a pair of dark sunglasses and a hat.

"Mum, we're going _inside_, I don't think you need those."

"This is for you." Katy jammed the hat on Lucie's head and put the sunglasses on her own face. Then she pulled out a hair tie and piled her long hair on top of her head. "Let's go, we should go through pretty quick."

"Mum, what is going on?" Lucie said but Katy grabbed her hand and pulled her quickly through the bar. Lucie hardly had time to notice the strange variety of people in the bar, though some of them surely weren't human…

Katy took Lucie out behind the bar and Lucie found herself staring at a brick wall.

"What now…?" Lucie asked, she couldn't see a door. All she could see was a dustbin. Her mother pulled out her wand a little nervously, and counted three bricks up and two bricks across and tapped the wall three times. Lucie had just enough time to wonder what on earth her mother was up to when a hole appeared in the wall in front of her. The hole began to grow and within a few seconds, they were standing in front of an open doorway. Lucie gaped at her mother who smiled from behind her sunglasses and pushed Lucie through.

Lucie wanted to walk slowly, she didn't even want to walk, she wanted to stand perfectly still and look at everything around her. She saw a shop that sold cauldrons and had to resist the urge to giggle. **There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon.**Lucie saw a shop where you could buy an owl, she remembered hearing that in the wizarding world mail was sent by owl and wondered if she would buy one before they left. There was a shop called _Quality Quidditch Supplies_ advertising the brand new Nimbus Two Thousand and One.

Katy pulled Lucie along with her past all these interesting shops and into an enormous white building that said Gringotts on it.

"This is the wizard bank, Gringotts." Katy told her. "It's run by goblins." Lucie frowned at her mother and then turned around and found herself face to face with a goblin, Lucie thought it was very ugly, it had a big head, long feet, long fingers and it was very short.

On the door to Gringotts was a poem that Lucie stopped to read and was glad her mother didn't pull her through the doors before she finished.

_**Enter, stranger, but take heed  
Of what awaits the sin of greed,  
For those who take, but do not earn,  
Must pay most dearly in their turn,  
So if you seek beneath our floors  
A treasure that was never yours,  
Thief, you have been warned, beware  
Of finding more than treasure there**_

Lucie tried not to stare which turned out to not be too hard as there were about a million goblins inside so it wouldn't go noticed if she was watching them.

The inside of Gringotts was all made of white marble. Katy marched up to one of the counters, rummaging through her purse as she did so, she extracted a small golden key and stepped up to speak to the goblin.

"I'd like to withdraw money from my account." She told him.

"Name?" the goblin asked, examining the key closely though Lucie wasn't sure for what.

"Cupit." Katy said and the person next to them, speaking with the next closest goblin looked up and stared at the two of them. Lucie frowned up at her mother who was staring at the marble counter in front of her, not meeting either Lucie's eyes or the stranger next to them. Lucie, however, noticed the person whisper something to the person behind them in line who also turned to stare at Katy and Lucie and unless Lucie was very much mistaken, more and more people were whispering and staring and her and her mum though she couldn't fathom why.

"Why were they staring at us when you said our last name?" Lucie asked. "Is it like how all my friends... all the..." she frowned. "Muggles... think it's Cupid?" Katy looked down at Lucie and seemed to almost start to laugh.

"No, it's not that, I'll tell you later." She said quickly.

"When?" Lucie didn't trust later at all.

"Later. I'll tell you before you go to school, you can't go to school not knowing."

"Not knowing what?"

"Not right now, Lucie."

The cart they were riding in was going alarmingly fast. Lucie was starting to feel a bit stopped asking her mum about the strange reaction their last name and hoped the ride would stop soon. It did soon enough, but if Lucie was right, they had gone very far underground. They stopped in front of one of the vaults and the goblin took out the key Katy had brought and opened the door. Lucie looked over at her mother. It was full of gold. Gold and silver and bronze coins filled the vault.

"Is that real gold?" Lucie asked as Katy scooped out many handfuls of the coins.

"Of course it is." Katy frowned at Lucie.

"No wonder gold is so rare. Wizards have got it all hidden underground." Lucie said and Katy laughed. Lucie grinned at her and they got back in the cart. After another cart ride that made Lucie feel a bit sick, they went back out into the sunshine, Katy jamming the sunglasses back on her face as they left the bank.

"Alright, Lucie, what do we need?" Katy asked and pulled the supply list out of her purse and handed it to Lucie.

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY **

**Uniform****  
First-year students will require:  
1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)  
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear  
3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)  
4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)  
Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags **

**Set Books****  
All students should have a copy of each of the following:****  
**_**The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)**_** by Miranda Goshawk  
**_**A History of Magic**_**by Bathilda Bagshot  
**_**Magical Theory**_**by Adalbert Waffling  
**_**A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration**_**by Emeric Switch  
**_**One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi**_** by Phyllida Spore  
**_**Magical Drafts and Potions**_**by Arsenius Jigger  
**_**Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them**_**by Newt Scamander  
**_**Break with a Banshee **_**by Gilderoy Lockhart  
**_**Gadding with Ghouls**_**by Gilderoy Lockhart  
**_**Holidays with Hags**_**by Gilderoy Lockhart  
**_**Travels with Trolls**_**by Gilderoy Lockhart  
**_**Voyages with Vampires**_**by Gilderoy Lockhart  
**_**Wanderings with Werewolves**_**by Gilderoy Lockhart  
**_**Year with the Yeti**_**by Gilderoy Lockhart **

**Other Equipment****  
1 wand  
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)  
1 set glass or crystal phials  
1 telescope  
1 set brass scales  
Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad  
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS **

"I need plain work robes." Lucie said. "Black ones."

"Alright, we'll go to Madame Malkin's, that's the best." Katy pointed Lucie into a shop with racks of long robes everywhere. Lucie thought wizards clothes looked a bit weird. "Hogwarts," Katy told Madame Malkin when they went in.

"Everything?" Madame Malkin asked. Katy nodded. Lucie followed her mother and Madame Malkin into the back of the shop. Lucie stood up on the stool she was directed to and Madame Malkin threw some long black robes over her and began to pin them up to the right length. A few minutes later, Madame Malkin pulled the robes off Lucie's head, waved her wand at them a few times and they sewed themselves up neatly where they were pinned and the pins flew over and stuck themselves in a large pincushion on the table in the corner. Then Madame Malkin used her wand to make a black robe with silver fastenings, just like it said on the letter, come zooming over. She took a hat off the shelf and put it on Lucie's head. It was much too big but a few taps of Madame Malkin's wand and it shrunk to fit Lucie perfectly. Katy paid for the robes, which had been packed in large paper packages, and she and Lucie left.

"What about the gloves?" Lucie asked. "And what do they mean 'dragon hide'?"

"They mean the hide of a dragon, Lucie, what do you think they mean?"

"A real live dragon? Like a huge scaly fire breathing monster?"

"The very same." Katy smiled at the terrified look on Lucie's face. "We can get those here." She steered Lucie into another shop but they left about five minutes later with a pair of dragon hide gloves. Lucie thought all the shops were fascinating. "Right, let's get your books now." Katy shepherded Lucie into a shop called Flourish and Blotts. They bought all fourteen books that Lucie needed. Katy remarked how expensive the Lockhart books were as they went out, passing almost a hundred posters advertising that Lockhart himself would be at _Flourish and Blotts_ the very next day to sign autographs.

"Mum, I need a cauldron." Lucie giggled, it was still just too funny not to laugh. She was buying a _cauldron_ because it was on her supply list for _school_. How weird was that? "The shop's right there." They were standing in front of the cauldron shop Lucie had seen when they first arrived. They went inside and purchased a pewter, standard size 2 cauldron.

"What now, love?" Katy asked as they stepped into the sunshine.

"A wand, glass or crystal phials, a telescope and some brass scales." Lucie read. "Oh, and I can bring a owl, a cat or a toad. Can I have an owl?" She grinned; the idea of having a pet owl was ridiculous, but quite fun.

"We can buy phials, telescopes and scales in the same shop, and we'll do your wand last, I know when I bought my wand I didn't care about anything else for ages, I just wanted to try and do magic." Katy smiled at Lucie who nodded and followed her mother into a shop across the road.

"What about an owl?" Lucie asked as they selected a set of brass scales. "And can we get crystal, crystal's way prettier than glass!" she grinned. Katy nodded and they moved into another section of the store to choose the phials. Lucie wanted to buy a real gold telescope but her mother bought a brass one, like the scales. "That's boring." Lucie frowned but didn't complain any more than that. They paid and left the shop, now weighted down with packages. "Mum, you can do magic, can't you do anything about these?" Lucie looked at the packages as her hands were to full to point at them. "Make them lighter or Appilate them home or something?"

"Appirate, Lucie, not Appilate." Katy said and Lucie shrugged. "And yes, we can make them lighter." Katy took out her wand with a frown and then stood stock still, thinking hard before poking the large, heavy package with the scales in it. Lucie was surprised and completely awed, it suddenly weighed nothing at all. It was like an empty cardboard box. Katy looked delighted with herself and quickly repeated the spell, though Lucie had no idea how it worked as Katy didn't say anything.

"That was brilliant!" Lucie grinned at her mother. "And I'm going to do that too?"

"Not for a long time, Lucie." Katy told her. "It takes a lot to learn magic."

"Anyway, let's get me an owl, okay? But what am I going to tell my friends if I suddenly have a pet owl?" Lucie frowned.

"We'll make sure your friends don't see the owl." Katy said. "And you'll make new friends, you know, friends who will think it's a bit odd if you _don't _have an owl."

"Mum! I don't want to never talk to Sophie again!"

"I didn't say you have to, Lu," Katy told her as they entered Eeylops Owl Emporium. "Right, what sort of owl do you want?"

"Look at that one, it's so cute!" Lucie pointed to a tiny little owl in a cage in the corner. The owl was too big to fit in one hand, but it could have easily sat in her hands if she cupped them both together. "Mum, he's darling, can we get him?"

"It's says he's a Screech owl, though, he might be a bit loud."

"I don't care, you can use magic so you don't hear it!" Lucie had no idea if such a spell existed, but she was sure they could find one. Besides, she had fallen in love with the tiny owl.

Katy asked the shop assistant who assured her the only Screech owls that were used for post owls, were the quietest ones of the breed and Katy agreed to buy the little owl. Lucie was ecstatic as she carried the cage out of the store, the owl was hooting up at her and Lucie was sure he liked her too.

"Now we get you a wand." Katy pointed to a small shop up the road a bit, golden letters over the door said Ollivanders, Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. Lucie was excited. She was getting a magic wand. Then she could make things weigh nothing and she could Allipate or Appirate or whatever it was called.

Lucie heard a little bell as they pushed open the door, but it wasn't necessary, there was a very old man with white hair, Ollivander, Lucie assumed, helping another girl. There was a largish pile of wands like Lucie's mother's on the desk and the girl had a frown on her face as she raised her hand to wave the wand she was currently holding, but before she had gotten it above her head, Ollivander snatched it out of her hands with a frown. The next wand the girl waved once or twice but nothing happened and Ollivander took it back quickly. Lucie and her mother waited for about five minutes before the girl found the right wand (ebony and dragon heartstring, though Lucie wasn't quite sure what that meant) and left with her mother and father. Mr. Ollivander flicked his wand at the pile of rejected wands and they all flew back into their boxes and settled themselves neatly on the shelves. Lucie stared at them. She loved magic.

"Miss Cupit?" Ollivander asked, looking intently at her and Lucie frowned. How should he know who she was? Surely word hadn't spread _that _quickly from the bank she and her mother were there, and why would anyone care about her in the first place? She would have to remember to ask her mother about it. Lucie nodded nervously and glanced up at her mother who was frowning at her hands. "Katy Cupit," Ollivander said, looking at Katy. "How are you doing?" before Katy had a chance to answer, Ollivander continued, "Cherry and phoenix feather, was it not?"

"Yes, yes it is." Katy seemed to smile in spite of herself.

"Well then, Miss Cupit, let's get started. What's your wand arm?"

"Right?" Lucie assumed this would be the same as being right-handed in the Muggle world. Ollivander nodded and pulled out a tape measure and began measuring her in ways she was sure could have nothing to do with waving a magic wand. It could hardly matter how far there was between her ears, could it?

"Thank you," Ollivander told the tape measure after a few moments and it crumpled to a heap on the floor. Ollivander had a small stack of boxes in his hands. He opened the first one and held it out to Lucie. "Cherry and dragon heartstring."

"Like yours," Lucie smiled at her mother. "But what do you mean, dragon heartstring?" She frowned.

"I'm afraid I can't explain it any better than the heartstring of a dragon, Miss Cupit. The cores of all the wands here have either, unicorn hair, a phoenix feather or a dragon heartstring in them. No two wands are the same, Miss Cupit, no two wands in the entire world." Lucie nodded, Ollivander was a bit strange, she thought, he was very intense in the way he looked at her and spoke but he looked a bit scary to Lucie, his eyes were almost silver looking and they made Lucie uncomfortable.

The cherry and dragon heartstring wand was taken away as soon as Lucie started to wave it. Then she tried one that was holly and unicorn tale hair but that was also deemed unworthy. Lucie didn't really understand it, but quite soon she had tried about five wands, all of which did not seem to be right, though she didn't have a clue what Ollivander was looking for, he never let her wave them, just snatched them away after she had taken hold of them.

The sixth wand was the one. Lucie knew when she took it, it felt warm, friendly in her hand. It was willow, nine and a quarter inches long and had a unicorn tail hair in the center. She waved it in front of her and a line of golden sparks flew out of it, twirling gracefully to the floor where they disappeared. She grinned triumphantly at her mother who was smiling at her, but Lucie thought she looked a bit sad.

After paying for the wand, Lucie and Katy went back outside. Katy had taken a few more of Lucie's packages in her hands and Lucie was spinning her new wand around, shouting out happily every times more gold sparks came out of it, twice Lucie got sparks that were another color, once yellow and once red, but mostly gold sparks came out of her wand.

"Lucie, we're done shopping sweetheart, we should go home, Dad and Maddie will want to see what we bought." The sun was starting to lower itself behind the buildings and Lucie agreed, though a little sadly. There was nothing at home that even close to as interesting as Diagon Alley.

They went back through the brick wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron and out onto Charring Cross Road where they got in the car. Lucie sat in the back, with her new owl next to her.

_How do you like Lucie????_

_Please review and tell me if you think it's gonna be good, bad, amazing, horrible, etc. _

_xoxo,_

_Lily_

_p.s. it is scary late so i will put up at least one more chapter tomorrow but i have got to get some sleep right or i will blow up._


	3. Chapter 2

_So this time I am undating two chappies right now. To make up for lack of an update yesterday... sorry... again. _

**Chapter 2**

By the time they got home, the sun had gone down completely.

"Right, we're going to have to wait a moment to bring all this stuff in," Katy frowned, pointing to the house next door, their neighbors were having a barbeque. "The Muggles can't see this stuff." Katy frowned then appeared to remember something. She pointed her wand at the pile of packages on the back seat and said, "_Reducio!_" Nothing happened. Katy frowned harder and repeated the spell. Lucie watched, amazed, as this time the packages all shrunk to half their size. Katy performed the spell again and the packages were small enough to fit in her pockets, Katy scooped them up and went inside, Lucie carried the little owl in as quickly as she could, hoping the neighbors would assume she had bought a parrot if they noticed she had a birdcage.

"I thought you two went shopping?" James was asking Katy when Lucie got in the kitchen. "What is that?" he asked quickly, frowning at the owl.

"An owl, we use owls for the post, I told you that. Every family has one." Katy smiled at him.

"We own an owl?" He asked, laughing a little. "I can't believe my family owns a post owl."

"Believe it, cause we own more things you wouldn't have ever thought you would." Katy told him and pulled the miniscule packages out of her pockets.

"What are those?" James asked.

Katy said, "_Engorgio!_" twice and the packages bloomed back to their original sizes. James yelled out in surprise and gaped at Katy who smiled back.

"That is going to take some getting used to." He said shakily.

"It always does for Muggles. The laws of the magical world say we aren't allowed to tell someone until we get married, so plenty of witches and wizards have quite the confession to make on their wedding night." She laughed.

The next morning, Lucie decided she would have to name her owl. He was still downstairs, he had spent the night in the kitchen, but Katy had promised he could move into Lucie's room soon.

"Lucie," Katy began slowly when Lucie announced her intent to name her pet. "Lucie, I think he's already got a name."

"What? I didn't name him!" Lucie frowned.

"Yes, the thing is, I think Maddie may have."

"What? He'll have some stupid name. Is it a color? She names everything after colors! And I'll just change it!" Lucie frowned.

"No it isn't a color, and I don't know if you'll be able to he seems to like his name."

"What is it?" Lucie was suspicious that her mother wouldn't actually say the name.

"Well, you know how your sister loves that book about Princess What's her name? She was showing the book to the owl, and showing him the prince, he's called Boris, you know, and the owl seems to think that's his name."

"She named my owl Boris?" Lucie frowned at her mother.

"It wasn't on purpose, Lucie don't be upset with her, she's only two."

"She's almost three." Lucie snapped but she was relieved, she had been afraid Maddie would have named the owl something like Purple Flower Princess, Boris was a fantastic name if Maddie had come up with it. And Lucie actually thought it was pretty cute. Although any owl called Boris sounded like it should be quite large, not able to fit in Lucie's two hands. Lucie went into the kitchen and Maddie was sitting at the table looking at the book about Prince Boris and his princess whose name escaped both Katy and Lucie just then. The owl hooted happily at Lucie when she came in. "So you wanna be called Boris, then, do you?" she asked it. "I suppose that's okay." She shrugged. "What do you do all day, Boris? I imagine sitting in a cage is a bit boring. Hang on, shouldn't you be sleeping?" Lucie asked as she remembered that owls were nocturnal. But Boris was far too excited to sleep, whether or not his species said he ought to.

* * *

"Mum?" Lucie asked a few evenings later, she would be going to Hogwarts in just a few weeks. "Mum, when are you going to explain what happened at the bank?"

"What bank, sweetheart?" Katy asked distractedly from behind the book she was reading.

"Gringotts!" Lucie frowned.

"Oh!" Katy looked up, startled. "Oh… I suppose I can tell you that now." Lucie sat down on the couch next to her mother. "Well, remember how you asked me if they were staring because of the Cupid myth?" Lucie nodded. "Well, the Cupid myth started because of our family." Lucie stared in shock at her mother, there was a myth, a well known myth, about her family? "Some Muggles overheard some wizards talking about a new baby in the Cupit family and they must have heard enough about what our family can do to create this myth about a baby who can shoot a bow and arrow and make you fall in love."

"What our family can do?" Lucie repeated, confused. "What can we do?"

"It's a bit hard to explain, and Cupits don't use their powers anymore, not really, but in the days of arranged marriages we were quite useful. See Cupits can… sort of create love. Not really, I guess I've always thought of it as helping to realize feelings, but like when two people were supposed to get married their parents would have a Cupit come over and we could help the two people find things… like about the other person that they liked or had in common or something like that. Do you understand?"

"I guess," Lucie said. She didn't really understand but she was grinning from ear to ear. Her family was famous. She was famous in the wizarding world; all those people had been looking at her because she was Lucie _Cupit_. She had never liked her name more than she did now. "We can sort of make people fall in love and we're famous!" she laughed. "I'm famous?"

"Lucie, don't go around singing about how famous you are," Katy scolded. "But yes, most people who were brought up in the wizarding world will know all about the Cupits."

"Wow." Lucie grinned again.

Lucie had to say goodbye to Sophie three weeks later because Sophie's school was quite far away and had a week of orientation type things Sophie and her parents had to go to.

"Guess what Maddie?" Lucie told her sister. It was the third week of August, one week before Lucie was going to Hogwarts. "Me and Boris are leaving pretty soon, we're going to school."

"No, no!" Maddie frowned at Lucie. "Birdie stay."

"No, he's my owl, Maddie." Lucie frowned.

"Pince Boris!" Maddie grinned and Lucie rolled her eyes.

"Right, him, and he's coming with me." Lucie told her.

A week later, Katy, James, Lucie and Maddie were at King's Cross Station, Lucie had laughed herself silly when her mother told her the train left from Platform 9 ¾ but they were on their way now.

"Mum, there's no such thing." Lucie pointed, she could see Platforms nine and ten but her platform wasn't there.

"You have to go through the barrier, Lucie, it's hidden from Muggles."

"I have to what?"

"Watch." Katy told her walked straight at the barrier. Lucie thought her mum had gone insane and then, as soon as Katy would have hit the barrier, she disappeared. Lucie exchanged a confused look with her father and then Katy reappeared. "Come on, walk through the barrier, Lucie." Maddie was in Katy's arms and hadn't seemed to notice they had just done anything unusual. Take your trolley, we'll follow you."

Lucie was not convinced it would work, but she began pushing her trolley toward the barrier, she couldn't see the outline of any hidden door or anything like that at all. Just a ticket box. She frowned as she approached the barrier but just when the end of her trolley should have crashed, it didn't and Lucie followed shortly though, emerging onto a platform that had not been there a few seconds ago. There was an archway over where she had come that said Platform 9 ¾. She grinned to herself and stepped forward a bit more. Her parents and Maddie appeared a few seconds later, her father looking very startled.

"Lucie!" Maddie shrieked. "Lucie goed bye bye!" she clapped and giggled. James and Katy helped Lucie take her trunk and the cage with Boris in it onto the train. They found a compartment near the back of the train with only one girl in it who looked to be about Lucie's age. James and Katy got off the train and Lucie leaned out the window to talk with them before it left.

"I'll write you tomorrow or something if you want." Lucie told them. "I tell you everything!" she beamed around at the platform, there weren't too many people left on it, the train would be leaving soon.

"Have a fun term, Lucie, see you at Christmas!" Katy smiled.

"Happy Birthday, Lucie." James said and leaned forward to kiss her goodbye.

"Happy Birthday, love." Katy said and Lucie stretched out to hug her mother.

"Bye, Maddie!" She hugged her sister as well. "Bye, Mum, bye, Dad!"

Her parents retreated a few steps back and the train began to move. Lucie grinned out the window at her family, her mother's long black hair was blowing behind her in the wind. She giggled as it flew backward and hit an elderly woman in the face. But she stopped giggling at the looks exchanged by the woman and her mother. There was something akin to hate in the older woman's face that went well beyond having been hit by hair. And the look of shame on her mother's face made Lucie wonder when her mother and this woman had met and what had happened between them.

* * *

"Excuse me?" A girl with bright red hair pushed open the compartment door. "Can I sit here?" She pointed at one of the empty seats in the compartment. Lucie looked around at the other person in the compartment. There was still just the one other girl, who Lucie hadn't actually talked to yet, but she thought the girl might also be a first year.

"Sure." She turned away from her mother and nodded at the red headed girl with a grin. The girl looked like she was out of breath. She smiled and plopped down on the seat. "What's your name?" Lucie asked.

"Ginny." The girl smiled. "Ginny Weasley. Who are you?"

"Lucie Cupit." Lucie said.

"Cupit? Like the rain?" Ginny asked.

"Like the rain?" Lucie frowned. "What rain?" She glanced at the other girl, who was staring at her. "Hi," Lucie said and smiled awkwardly at her. She wasn't sure what Ginny meant but thought the other girl might know because of the look she was giving Lucie.

"How do you not know about Cupit Rain? You're Lucie _Cupit_!" Ginny frowned at her.

"What is Cupit Rain?" Lucie frowned. Some of her anger at her mother was starting to come back because she had a feeling that she would have known about this Cupit Rain stuff if she had been raised with magic.

"Well," Ginny frowned in thought, "I'm not entirely sure, but my mum says that every single Cupit girl first shows her magic by crying and that makes it rain and it's during the summer so it's unusual and so summer rainstorms are called Cupit Rain." Ginny shrugged. "That's what my mum says."

Lucie frowned, thinking hard; she could, in fact, remember when she was five years old and had seen the dog belonging to the neighbors across the street get hit by a passing car. She had burst into tears at the sight of it and it had immediately begun to rain.

"How do you not know that?" Ginny asked.

"Well, we didn't do magic when I was growing up. My dad's a Muggle and my mum's a witch but she didn't tell anyone, not even my dad knew, she never did any magic until Professor Dumbledore came and told me I'm a witch. I didn't know magic existed." Lucie sighed. She thought it was incredibly unfair. Ginny's mouth was open in surprise.

"She didn't do _any_ magic? Why not?"

"I haven't got a clue." Lucie frowned. "She won't talk about it, I asked her a few times, and she won't tell me about when she was at Hogwarts either. I asked her about her friends and stuff to see if I could meet anyone who knew her, maybe her friends' kids, but she wouldn't tell me a thing."

"So you're the last Cupit! Other than your mum." The other girl said excitedly. She had long brown plaits that went almost to her elbows. Lucie turned to her. "Hi," The girl said shyly, she seemed a bit embarrassed that she had shouted out like that. "I'm Charlotte."

"Today's my birthday!" Lucie announced after a few minutes' silence. Charlotte and Ginny both smiled at her. "I'm twelve."

"So you're a second year?" Ginny asked with raised eyebrows.

"No, you have to turn eleven before you start your first year. I missed it by a day or I would have started last year." She shrugged; she really didn't mind that she was a year older than everyone else. She had always been older than the other kids in her class when she went to school.

"Well, happy birthday." Ginny and Charlotte both said and grinned. Lucie beamed back at them.

"Do you know who stayed at my house this summer?" Ginny said a few minutes later, turning red but looking like she was bursting with excitement. "_Harry Potter!_" As she said it, she turned as red as her hair but continued beaming.

"_The_ Harry Potter?" Charlotte asked with wide eyes. "He stayed at your house?"

"He's my brother's best friend." Ginny said and she sounded very proud of this fact. Lucie felt left out. She had no idea who Harry Potter was. She was getting a feeling that he was rather like Cupit Rain and if she had grown up in the magical world, she would know who this Harry Potter was.

"Who's he?" Lucie asked and both other girls gaped at her.

"Who's _Harry Potter_?" Ginny asked and then appeared to remember that Lucie hadn't grown up with magic. Then she began to talk very quickly, "He's the Boy Who Lived. He got rid of You-Know-Who when he was just a tiny little baby. Only one year old. And his parents were killed by You-Know-Who."

"You-Know-Who?" Lucie frowned. She had no idea who.

"You-Know-Who was the Darkest wizard ever. He was trying to take over and he wanted to get rid of all the Muggles." Charlotte said and she appeared to be suffering from some sort of shock because her voice was very breathless and her eyes were saucers.

"And Harry Potter saved the wizarding world from him!" Ginny added, also breathlessly.

"And we go to school with him?" Lucie asked.

"Yup!" Ginny beamed, remaining excessively red. "He's one grade ahead of us."

"Wow." Charlotte said, still breathless.

"Wait!" Lucie said all of a sudden remembering something. "He's in the grade above us? What House is he in?"

"Gryffindor, of course! Where else would Harry Potter go?" Ginny asked her like she was crazy.

Lucie's curiosity was hooked. It sounded like the Harry whose father had used to dream with Lucie's own father of Lucie and Harry getting married was Harry _Potter_, the Boy Who Lived. How weird would that be? Had Lucie, as a baby, been friends with one of the most famous people in the wizarding world? Perhaps all her mother's friends were famous, her mother was and if Lucie's baby friend was Harry Potter, maybe everyone in the wizarding world knew all about her mother and her friends, maybe they were all famous. Lucie grinned to herself.

But then Lucie sunk back in her seat. Hadn't she promised her mum she wouldn't go nosing around trying to find things out about her father? She had a feeling if she marched up to Harry Potter asking him about his parents and perhaps her own as well, she might learn some things she wasn't supposed to.

By the end of the ride Lucie thought she and Ginny and Charlotte would continue to get along quite well.

Lucie's mother had told her all you had to do was try on a hat to get Sorted so she wasn't very worried however she did wonder where she would go. Her mother had told her that she had been in Gryffindor; that was one of the few things she had told Lucie, so Lucie thought she might go there as well. Lucie didn't even know for sure whether or not her real father had been magical and gone to Hogwarts, and if he had what House he had been in. All she knew was that he had died when she was one year old.

Lucie hardly noticed that the hat sang a song, she was too busy looking all around the Great Hall to try and see everything and everyone in it. The ceiling looked like the night sky outside, candles were floating unsupported around the heads of the students seated at the four long tables. Lucie assumed these were the four House tables. She wondered which one was Gryffindor.

Lucie was brought back out of her thoughts when the school burst into applause at the end of the Sorting Hat's song. Professor McGonagall told them all that when she called their names, to put the hat on and sit on the stool.

The first person to be Sorted went to Gryffindor, a girl called Haley Allen. Lucie watched Haley hurry to the Gryffindor table and when she directed her attention back to the Sorting, it was just in time to hear a boy called Colin Creevey go to Gryffindor. After Colin, a boy went to Ravenclaw and a girl went to Slytherin and then Lucie's name was called. She heard some whispers as she walked forward and couldn't help but smile to herself. They were whispering because she was a Cupit. Because they all knew who she was. And everyone would remember her from the Sorting, she just knew it. While she wasn't that worried about the Sorting itself, she had wondered a bit about where she would be Sorted to, but she had barely felt the hat touch her head when it shouted "GRYFFINDOR" and she leapt off the stool and ran to sit next to Haley Allen.

Lucie watched the Sorting happily. Charlotte from the train was only three people after Lucie and she got Sorted into Gryffindor as well. She hurried down and slid onto the seat beside Lucie. Lucie grinned at her and they both turned up to the High Table.

Ginny was the very last person to be sorted. She looked ready to sink in the floor and die by the time she was called. However she was very quickly placed in Gryffindor and ran down to join the large group of new Gryffindors at the spot Lucie had saved for her.

"Are your really a Cupit?" A girl called Emma Shaw asked after they all began to eat.

"Yup!" Lucie beamed proudly around. "I'm really Lucie Cupit!"

"I'm Will." One of the boys said. He grinned around at everyone. "And I have no idea what any of you are called, 'cept Lucie there cause she just said her name." Lucie was very glad Will said that because she was a bit embarrassed to admit she didn't remember all of their names. They went around and introduced themselves.

Lucie was not going to remember all those names. The only one she could remember two seconds later was Maggie Nelson because she had been the last once to introduce herself.

"Thanks," Will said. Apparently he had had better luck keeping track of the names. "So how many of you guys didn't know about magic when you got your letter?" One of the boys (Lucie was pretty sure it was Colin Creevey), the girl who was sorted first, Maggie Nelson and Lucie all said, "I didn't" at about the same time.

"Ginny," Lucie whispered to Ginny after having to answer more than one question about how on earth a Cupit could possibly not know about magic. "Which one is Harry Potter?" Ginny blushed a deep red and looked around but then she frowned.

"He's not here." She looked a little while longer. "Neither is Ron." She frowned. "Where _are_ they?" Lucie had no suggestions. "Those two are also my brothers," Ginny pointed a pair of identical redheads. "And him, up there, with the glasses." Ginny indicated an older boy. "I have two other brothers also but they're out of school."

"How many brothers do you have?" Lucie raised her eyebrows.

"Six."

"Six? I think I'd kill myself." Lucie giggled.

"No, they aren't that bad. Fred and George," Ginny indicated the twins. "are always getting up to something, though, but other than them two, it's not a problem."

"Anyone know why a bunch of the teachers left?" Will asked them all.

"Professor Snape was gone the whole Sorting but he just came and got Professor McGonagall and took her away and now Professor Dumbledore's just gone but I don't know why." Charlotte said.

"How do you know their names?" Lucie asked.

"My sister's in fourth year." Charlotte shrugged. "She told me about the teachers."

"Today's Lucie's birthday." Ginny announced as the desserts appeared on the table after the dinner was gone.

All the first years wished her a happy birthday and Lucie grinned her thanks and she helped herself to a very large portion of ice cream. Lucie loved ice cream. She could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner if she was allowed to.

Lucie and Ginny soon discovered the reason Harry Potter and Ron had not been at the feast. It seemed they had flown an old car (Lucie wanted to know first of all: why didn't they use the Hogwarts Express, and second of all: where did they get hold of a flying car?) to Hogwarts and crashed into the Whomping Willow, a tree Lucie firmly told herself she would never approach with a fifty foot long pole. Ron and Harry came into the common room shortly after all the other Gryffindors and Ginny's twin brothers were apparently very pleased with Ron.

After pointing out which person Harry Potter was for the tenth time to Lucie, Ginny took it upon herself to recount his heroic tale to Lucie again. She managed to catch the attention of the three Muggleborn first years who all wanted to hear the story as well.

"And he was only _one_?" A girl with shoulder length curls the color of honey and blue eyes like Lucie's asked. She had reintroduced herself (much to Lucie's relief) as Haley Allen and Lucie remembered she had been the first person to be Sorted.

"One and just a few months!" Ginny told her small crowd of listeners. "I think just two."

"Wow," said a boy called Colin Creevey. "Is it true he has a scar that's shaped like lightning on his forehead?" Lucie looked up, this was new, she hadn't heard about any scar.

"Yes, I saw it!" Ginny told them all. "It's a bolt of lightning right on his forehead."

"Wow," Colin repeated. Then Colin informed them all he would be right back, ran up the stairs and returned, panting, a minute later with a camera in his hand. "Would it be alright if I took a picture of all of you guys?" Colin asked and everyone shrugged and agreed and Colin, his knees trembling together with nerves, tapped a second or third year old the shoulder and asked if he would please take a picture. The boy laughed, but took the picture.

"Okay, I don't remember your name; I'm sorry." Lucie said to the last Gryffindor first year girl when they got into their dorm room that night. All six of them had a four poster bed with red drapes. The girl whose name Lucie didn't remember had straight black hair and extremely bright, deep blue eyes.

"Emma Shaw," she said. Emma Shaw sat down on the bed across from where Lucie was sitting. Her eyes stood out so much on her face, it was hard to look at any other part of it. Lucie supposed she was quite pretty. "You're Haley or Hallie or something like that, right?" Emma asked Haley, who was in the bed to her right. "You were the first one called."

"I'd never been so nervous in my entire life!" said Haley breathlessly, her blue eyes wide. "And it's Haley, Haley Allen." Lucie thought that in a few years, Haley and Emma would look a bit like the girls she saw on the television back home.

The other girls Lucie remembered: Maggie Nelson; who Lucie thought was much more, she didn't know quite what to call it, _normal_ looking than Emma or Haley, Charlotte Downing; who was taking her long brown hair out of the two braids and running her fingers through it like a brush and Ginny Weasley with her flaming red hair that made her stand out from the other girls.

"Thanks." Lucie smiled. "Emma, Haley, Maggie, Charlotte and Ginny." She ticked them off on her fingers and no one told her she'd said their name wrong or anything so she figured she'd got them all right. "Well, I'm tired. I think I'm going to sleep." She hopped off her bed and began rummaging through her trunk for her toothbrush and her pajamas. "Anyone know where the bathroom is?" She grinned. "Ah, nevermind, through here." She had found a door leading off their bedroom but not into the hall. She came back in a few minutes and the other five girls were all sorting through their own trunks to get ready for bed.

"Hey does anyone have an owl? I told my parents I'd write to them, but I don't have my own." Haley asked as Lucie was crawling into bed.

"I have," Lucie told her. "You can borrow him. I think I was told he was going to the Owlrey or somewhere similar. He's really tiny and he's called Boris. I help you find him tomorrow; I need to write as well."

"Does anyone know the spell for lighting your wand?" Ginny asked as everyone climbed under their blankets. She was pulling out a small diary.

"_Lumos_." Emma said at once and Ginny repeated the spell. Nothing happened, so after about ten tries Ginny sighed and put the diary away, looking quite sad as she did so. Lucie went to sleep hoping tomorrow would come extremely fast.

* * *

Professor McGonagall was moving up the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall the next morning.

"What's she doing?" Lucie whispered to Ginny.

"My brothers told me she gives out the new schedules each term." Ginny whispered back.

Professor McGonagall got to them and began handing out pieces of paper.

"What do we have first?" Lucie asked Ginny as Ginny reached across the table to take her schedule from Professor McGonagall. Lucie jumped up and reached across to take hers, knocking over a pitcher of pumpkin juice in her hurry.

"You'll want to be a bit more careful, Miss Cupit." McGonagall told her with a slight frown. She waved her wand and the pitcher righted itself, the spilled juice disappearing. Lucie grinned down at the completely clean table in front of her; she couldn't wait to start learning magic.

"Sorry, Professor!" Lucie said brightly and smiled at McGonagall whose face changed for a moment and Lucie thought she looked almost sad but she turned away before Lucie really had a chance to process what she had seen. Lucie couldn't imagine why the sight of her would make anyone sad, least of all someone who she had only met the day before.

"Do you know what I love right now?" Lucie asked Ginny as they walked down the corridor to their first class, Transfiguration, with McGonagall, Lucie had decided to watch her closely to see if she still looked sad.

"No idea." Ginny answered with a shrug.

"People are looking at me. People are watching me walk. Look!" Lucie turned excitedly around. "That person was talking about me!"

"Why do you want people to talk about you?" Ginny asked.

"Because I'm a Cupit, and that makes me different! I'm…" Lucie lowered her voice and whispered to Ginny. "…_famous_."

"You aren't _that_ special." Ginny giggled. "I suppose it's just unusual. Have you got any aunts? From your mum."

"Nope." Lucie told her. "Why?"

"So you're the only other Cupit from your mum, and before her was just her mum or perhaps her mum had sisters, though I doubt it because then there would be more of you. I know there weren't any Cupits at Hogwarts when any of my brothers were here."

"So I am special." Lucie grinned at Ginny. "But I'm sure I'm nowhere near as special as _Harry Potter_." Ginny turned scarlet and Lucie was the one to laugh.

"No you aren't." Ginny said firmly, though she was still very red, and Lucie stopped laughing. The two of them followed the other Gryffindor first years into the Transfiguration classroom.

Lucie was hoping Friday would be a very good day because they didn't have anything after lunch. They had double Defense Against the Dark Arts and then double Charms, but then they were done.

"We have a _quiz_ right now?" Lucie looked at Ginny, hoping she had heard wrong. They had just walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and Professor Lockhart had announced they were starting with a quiz. A quiz to see how well they had read all nine hundred of Professor Lockhart's books. Lucie knew she would not do well on this quiz. She hadn't read the books; she had maybe rifled through them a bit to see if there were any interesting pictures, but been much more preoccupied with other aspects of the magical world to worry about school books. A good portion of her summer had also been spent saying goodbye to all her friends in the Muggle world and convincing them she was going away to some old remote school her mother had gone to. So when was she supposed to read Lockhart's books?

"Yeah, didn't you read the books?" Ginny asked.

"No, did you?"

"Not all of them, but a bit. How much did you read?"

"Well I read the back cover on all of them." Lucie grinned. "I can't believe we're having a test before we've even learned anything!"

Lucie groaned and looked at the quiz on her desk. She

_1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?_

Why would anyone know that? Lucie glanced up at him, people tended to wear their favorite colors, maybe his favorite color was purple, his robes were a very light shade of purple that Lucie thought was more typically worn by women, but perhaps in the magical world, these things were different and pink and purple were very manly colors. She scribbled "purple" in and hoped it was okay.

2. _What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?_

Lucie did not know a single other answer. She hadn't read any more than the back covers. She sighed and looked to her right where Ginny was still scribbling in the answer to some ridiculous question or other. Lucie briefly considered writing in crap answers to all of the questions just to see Lockhart's reaction, but not knowing him very well, she had no idea if this would make her new teacher hate her for the next seven years, and decided against it.

"Time's up everyone," Lockhart beamed from the front of the room after half an hour and all the parchments went soaring up at him to land on his desk at the front of the room. He began to look through them.

"How'd you do? I made up one answer and didn't have a clue on the rest." Lucie hissed to Ginny.

"You only put an answer to _one_ question?" Ginny looked appalled.

"Did you know all of them?"

"No, not all, but I read the books." Ginny giggled. "Those questions _were_ a bit useless, though, weren't they?"

"A bit?" Lucie frowned. "Oh, well, he probably won't like me much after this."

"Very good… very good… oh, not quite… dear, dear… fantastic… oh, no…" Lockhart said as he read through the tests. "And what's this? Miss Lucie Cupit? _Cupit_?" Lockhart looked up excitedly and Lucie raised her timidly. She was going to get detention for not doing the homework she hadn't known about, she just knew it. "Miss Cupit! I'm absolutely delighted to have you in my class." He smiled a glittering smile at her and she tried to smile back. "But, I must say, I'm disappointed, you only answered one question and you only got it half right."

"Oh, well, what's the real answer?"

"My favorite color is lilac, you only put purple." Lockhart said, sounding as though someone had beat him at something he'd really wanted to win. "And why are there no other answers?"

"Well, I didn't read the books, Professor." Lucie said sheepishly.

"You… you didn't read my books?" You would have thought someone had just informed Lockhart his mother had been murdered, he looked so sad.

"I thought they would be things like assigned reading once we got to school." Lucie had thought no such thing, she just hadn't read the books, but she thought that made it at least sound a bit better. "Sorry, Professor."

"Well, not a problem, not a problem, an excellent idea in fact, Miss Cupit!" Lockhart flashed her his perfect teeth again. "I'd like you all to complete _Magical Me_ and summarize it for me, to be handed in one week from today. Perhaps a bit of reading each night before you go to sleep, and we will discuss it in class after you hand in your summaries. Then we shall all decide together which book to read next!" Lockhart looked like he thought he'd just given them all a thousand Galleons and a large cake.

"Good one, Lucie." Ginny frowned after they left class.

"Haven't you read that?"

"Not all of it."

"Well, I haven't read any of it." Lucie told her. "You want to read it and tell me what happens?" Ginny shook her head. "Well, we can at least look on the bright side; all we have to do is summarize it, that isn't that bad. If he thinks we're reading and summarizing all his books we won't have to do anything else for a really long time."

"Not if he thinks we're reading one a week." Ginny told her with a frown. "Besides, don't you want to learn _something_ this year?"

"Well there isn't anything scary out there, is there?" Lucie gestured out the window. "I'd rather learn Charms and Potions and Transfiguration than Defense Against the Dark Arts. And as for Lockhart thinking we can read the books in a week, we'll just tell everyone to read really slowly and he'll think we're really stupid and give us more time."

"I read all the books already." Charlotte said, falling in step with them and the other girls on their way to Charms.

"That's lovely!" Emma said happily to her. "You can tell me what happens and then I don't have to read them!" She beamed at Charlotte.

"Me second!" Lucie grinned.

"I read _Magical Me_, but not the others." Haley told them. "I'll tell you what happens in it, Emma."

"Smashing, what about you, Maggie?" Lucie asked.

"I read a couple of the others, but not _Magical Me_." Maggie shrugged. "But I'm not that worried, I can read pretty fast."

"Okay, was there a paper on the booklist I missed out on saying we ought to read the books?" Lucie asked. "You all have read at least one of them! I just read the back covers. I had better things to do; I was much too busy trying to get my mum to teach me to fly on a broom." Lucie sighed. "But she's afraid of heights. And motorbikes." She added with a giggled.

"I didn't read any of them either." Emma giggled. "Homework in the summer isn't really my thing. Schoolwork in general isn't really my thing, actually. And what's a motorbike?"

"Muggle thing, my mum's terrified of them." Lucie grinned. "But I was really hoping she'd teach me how to fly."

"You know we'll having flying lessons here, Lucie." Ginny told her as they sat down in the Great Hall for lunch. "They start in not too long I think."

"Really?" Lucie asked eagerly. "But we weren't allowed to bring brooms!"

"The school provides them." Charlotte said. "My sister Sarah told me. She's a fourth year."

"Have any of you guys ridden a broom before?" Maggie asked.

"'Course," Ginny shrugged. "I've been stealing my brothers' brooms for ages cause Mum won't let me have one, I'm too young, she says." Ginny frowned.

"My dad bought this really strange kids' broom when I was about five. It's way better than the little kid ones that rise a foot in the air and only go straight, this thing was trying to be real, so it could go like five feet in the air and in all different directions, but the first time I rode on it, I fell off and got really dirty and my mum took it away." Emma sighed. "But it's okay," She immediately beamed at them all, a little too fast, Lucie thought. "I didn't like it anyway." She giggled but when she stopped Lucie thought maybe she looked a bit sad.

"I had one of those." Will came over and sat down next to them, grinning. "I thought it was great fun but one time I sat on it backwards and it could never go forwards again, no matter what direction I sat, it would always go shooting off backwards so I was always crashing into things cause I couldn't see where I was going. I didn't use it much." Will laughed.

"I'm glad no one ever gave something like that to my twin brothers." Ginny said with a frown. "That'd have been a bit scary."

"This is boring!" Lucie announced a few pages into _Magical Me._ "He's just ranting on about how wonderful he is."

"Well maybe you'd agree if you'd read his books!" Emma chided her. "He's done so much amazing stuff! He gets to think highly of himself, I think!"

"Well, I think he could think highly of himself a bit more quietly, he doesn't have to shove it all down my throat."

"You'd better get used to him." Emma said with a slight frown. "He's going to be our teacher for the next seven years and you don't want to get on his bad side during first year."

"I know, I know." Lucie said irritably. "I'm just not a big reading fan." She frowned at the book in her hands. "And this is stupid!"

"It isn't stupid!" Emma looked shocked.

"You haven't read it yet!" Lucie argued. "You haven't read any of his books."

"Well, Haley told me about _Magical Me_ and my mum always uses his book about household pests when we have a problem and he's never been wrong." Emma frowned. "And even if I didn't read the books, just look at the titles, he's _done_ so much stuff! Like he's really been out there and fought Dark creatures!"

"Well maybe if I'd grown up with magic, I worship him, too." Lucie sighed and went back to the book. She wanted to finish it as quick as possible, write the essay and not have to think about it for a week.

* * *

The next day, Emma still was upset that Lucie thought Lockhart's books were stupid. Haley seemed to have been converted to a Lockhart fan overnight as well and both of them were much less friendly to those who did not immediately pronounce their love for Lockhart. This made Lucie even more determined to not love Lockhart like the others. Sadly, Ginny seemed to be a fan as well, though perhaps not as much as Emma and Haley. Charlotte and Maggie both seemed to think all the stuff he had done was cool, but he wasn't their new hero.

"I'm not denying that he's done a lot of stuff," Lucie frowned when Emma approached her again that evening as she sat forcing her way towards the end of _Magical Me_. "His autobiography is just a bit too self-centered for me."

"It's an autobiography, Lucie," Ginny giggled. "That's sort of the point, being self-centered."

"But he never makes any mistakes. When I had to read other autobiographies of people at my old school, they were always saying things like, 'and this mistake led to blah, blah, blah' or 'looking back, I realize I should not have done this' and Lockhart just bangs on about how fantastic he is." Lucie told them both. "Maybe he's really talented, but he's a rubbish teacher. None of the books he assigned are about learning how to defend oneself; they're just about what he's already done. So now we know our teacher knows how to defend himself, but we won't ever learn."

"Maybe he just starts off with them," Emma said, looking wounded. "We don't know what the other class lists have on them."

"I do," Ginny said. "I've got a brother in second year, two in fourth year and one in sixth, they were all assigned all of his books as well."

"Well, I'm sure he'll get better," Emma sniffed. "He's _new_." Emma sounded as though that excused everything and Lucie had to stifle a giggle. Yes, Emma definitely reminded her of the girls on TV at home, Lucie wouldn't argue that Lockhart _was_ rather good looking, but that didn't make any or all of his other faults go away, as Emma seemed to think.

"The one thing I can think of that would make him my favorite teacher," Lucie told Ginny in an undertone as Emma leaned away from them to ask Haley something. "would be if he taught _us_ how to do all this." She pointed at the scattered Lockhart books surrounding the group of them. "That would be amazing."

"Give him time, I'm sure he'll get around to teaching." Ginny said. "Maybe he's just starting with his books and then we'll start learning to do it all."

"I hope so. I can't take seven years of _The Many Outstanding Qualities of Gilderoy Lockhart._" Lucie made quotes with her fingers and Ginny started to laugh. "Or maybe he'll leave."

"Why would he leave? You didn't see him when he announced he was coming here, he was really excited." Lucie was sad to see how excited Ginny looked as she said this.

"Well, he might get tired of teaching and want to go save some more towns from Yetis and Banshees and Trolls and stuff." Lucie said. "But I don't want Emma to hear that, she'd probably start to cry. I bet he leaves at some point, he won't want to never write another book again."

"What else could he do?" Ginny asked. "What other creatures are there he hasn't written about?"

"I don't know, maybe he still needs to write _Fight with a Flobberworm_." Lucie said and Ginny began to giggle.

"Do you even know what a Flobberworm is?" Ginny asked.

"Yeah, I was looking through _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ and I found Flobberworms." Lucie grinned. "Looks pretty scary…"

"Terrifying." Ginny giggled. "Anyway, I'm going to bed." She gathered up her things and went up the staircase. Maggie followed her, yawning hugely as she went.

"Do you know what I got earlier today?" Colin Creevey asked excitedly a few minutes later. "A_ picture of Harry Potter and Professor Lockhart!_" Colin didn't wait for anyone to ask what he had gotten and spoke like he was luckiest person in the world. "Will you show me how to make it move?" Colin turned to the only person left in her year of Gryffindor whose name Lucie didn't know.

"I don't know how to make it." The boy shrugged and turned back to the game of chess he was playing with Will Roberts. The boy had reddish brown hair and eyes so black it looked like they were made from stone but they were much warmer looking than stone.

"You told me I could make them move if I developed them in the right potion!" Colin said with a frown.

"Yeah, but I don't know how to make it." The boy shrugged again.

"Spoke a bit too soon, Tommy?" Will laughed and the boy who was apparently called Tommy glared at him. Will turned to Colin. "I bet you can find it in that one book we have, the one about drafts and potions and stuff."

"_Magical Drafts and Potions_," Emma said, pulling a book out of her bag. "Here," she handed it to Colin who began rifling through it with a very worried look on his face.

"Get him, get him, come on, you can do better than that!" Tommy was staring at the chess board looking agonized as one of his knights was smashing one of Will's to pieces. Lucie was surprised and not remotely surprised all at the same time. She jumped up to watch the game more closely. It was a bit like directing troupes in a battle, she thought. Lucie couldn't tell why Tommy was so upset, he seemed to be winning, but perhaps his pieces just weren't doing a good enough job of destroying Will's.

When Lucie went up to bed that night, Maggie was fast asleep but Ginny was still up, she was writing in the diary Lucie had seen on their first night back. Ginny started to giggle as Lucie went in the bathroom to wash up before bed and Lucie couldn't imagine what was making Ginny laugh. Nothing all that funny had happened their first three days of Hogwarts, so what was the joke?

_Please review!!!!_

_Lily_


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 5**

"Guess what?" Lucie said happily as she dragged Ginny down to breakfast on Monday morning. The weekend had been peaceful and uneventful and Lucie had finished reading _Magical Me_ and summarized it as well so she knew she wouldn't have any more homework for Defense Against the Dark Arts that week and that thought made her quite pleased.

"I give up." Ginny said with a big yawn.

"Today we have one hour of Transfiguration and then our first ever Potions class!"

"Why are you so excited about Potions?" Ginny asked her. "My brothers have all told me the teacher, Professor Snape, doesn't like Gryffindors at all and he's really scary and really unfair. And he hates Harry, too." Ginny added this last bit as though that made any argument in favor of Potions class impossible.

"Well, maybe he'll like us." Lucie waved her away. "Anyway, won't it be cool to learn Potions? We can make drinks that will do anything we want! We can cure people when they're dying and make their skin turn green and stuff!"

Ginny shrugged and helped herself to some bacon as the post owls came soaring in. Ginny looked up nervously.

"What are you so scared of, _you_ didn't fly a car here, you won't get a Howler." Lucie told her, giggling at the memory of her first ever breakfast at Hogwarts when Ron Weasley had been sent a Howler by his and Ginny's mother for flying the car to Hogwarts.

"I know, but what if she sends another one?" Ginny asked, still looking a bit nervous.

"Look!" Lucie pointed up at a very small brown owl flying towards the Gryffindor table. "That's Boris! I wonder if it's for me or Haley." Haley had borrowed Boris to send a letter to her parents, but Lucie had sent a letter with him at the same time. Boris ended up having two letters in his talons. "Haley!" Lucie called, Haley was sitting at the other end of the Gryffindor first years. "you got a letter!" She took the letter to Haley from Boris and handed it to Will, who was next to her. He passed it down the line as Lucie took her own letter and set down her fork. She was just going to open her letter when Boris leaned down and began to eat her sausages. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked him and he hooted once and hopped up onto her shoulder, still chewing on a sausage that was much too big for him.

_Dear Lucie,_

_I'm glad you got to school all right and that you've already  
__made friends. No I didn't know anyone called Weasley, I  
think there may have been someone called Weasley when I  
was in my first or second year at Hogwarts but they  
graduated shortly after I came so I don't know if it was  
Ginny's father or not, could have been an uncle._

_No, I've never heard of Gilderoy Lockhart, he wasn't in the  
same year as me at Hogwarts and I never met him or heard  
of him so he can't have been in any of the years around me.  
I suppose I might look at his books if he's so well known now.  
The titles seemed a bit tacky though. How are his classes?_

_Can you tell me the names of your teachers? I'm curious who  
is still there that I had._

_Boris had a letter that was not from you or for you, but we  
didn't take it, Do you know what it was?_

_Lots of love from Mum and Dad_

A little way up the table, Haley was giggling as she read her letter.

"My mum says they nearly died of fright. She says the owl turned up at night and was pecking on the window and they thought it was a robber and when they saw it was an owl they freaked out about crazy birds and my dad only just remembered that in the magical world we use owls for post about a minute before my mum was going to call the animal control people to have them come and get rid of the owl." Everyone was laughing by the time Haley finished talking.

Everyone ate and chatted, but slowly the Great Hall was emptying.

"Shall we go? Transfiguration starts in ten minutes." Ginny asked.

Tommy seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Ginny as he was pushing his plate away and digging through the bag at his feet.

"Got it!" He pulled out a very bedraggled piece of parchment.

"That's not your homework is it?" Lucie frowned at him. "McGonagall won't be pleased with that."

"No," Tommy said, raising his eyebrows at her. "It's my notes from the first lesson. I want to read them over before we have class. She said we all have to be successful with Transfiguring our matches into needles by the end of class today."

Several people began sifting for their own notes at this piece of information. Lucie wasn't all that worried. Her match was almost a perfect needle, it just needed to go pointy at the end and she would have it. Ginny had already gotten it the second class they had tried it. Lucie noticed that Ginny seemed to be on the verge of taking out her diary again but then they all set off for Transfiguration, not wanting to be late and Ginny quickly put the diary back in her bag.

* * *

By the end of the day, Lucie knew Ginny had been right. Professor Snape was officially the worst teacher she had ever encountered and Lucie was sure he disliked her more than was entirely rational. She had never seen him before that day and he looked at her like she was something gross on the bottom of a shoe. She briefly wondered if this had something to do with what her mother had told Dumbledore, _"Do you realize what life will be like for her if people know the truth about her?" _and Dumbledore's response, _"There's no reason you can't make up another father for her, if you are uncomfortable with allowing all to know her real father."_ Maybe Professor Snape knew who her real father was. Maybe he had done something bad. Lucie was suddenly gripped with the urge to break her promise to her mother and find out everything she could about her father, but knew she shouldn't.

"See! Told you so," Ginny said as they sat down in the Gryffindor Common room that evening. "He's awful."

"He really is, I don't have any idea what his problem is." Lucie frowned. She had been very excited about Potions and was now scanning her schedule to see which days she was unlucky enough to have it.

"Whose problem?" Will leaned over to ask.

"Snape." Lucie frowned.

"He's a wart." Will nodded seriously. "So did you throw a Dungbomb at him over the weekend or something? He _really_ didn't like you." Will laughed.

"What's a Dungbomb?" Lucie asked.

"They're really foul." Emma came over and sat down. "They smell awful." She sniffed.

"Like dung?" Lucie asked and everyone nodded. "That _is_ a bit gross."

"They're hilarious!" Will said, crossing his arms at Emma who put her nose in the air in response. "Anyway, d'you know why Snape dislikes you so much?" he turned back to Lucie and Lucie noticed that Emma looked a little hurt by it.

"I haven't got a clue. Maybe he was at school with my mum and they didn't like each other much." This had not occurred to Lucie before and while she still thought it was more likely whatever problem there was with her father, this was a better suspicion to be voicing publically.

"Could be." Will shrugged.

Later that evening, Lucie took out her mum's letter and decided to answer it then. She could ask if her mother had known anyone called Snape.

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_The other letter was for a girl in my dorm. She's a  
Muggleborn and has no owl and I said she could  
borrow Boris. Sorry I forgot to explain that. She's  
called Haley Allen so as long as her name is on the  
letter, its fine. And in my letters I'll tell you if another  
letter should be coming._

_Yeah, now I know you wouldn't have known Ginny's  
parents, she's got a hundred brothers and they're all  
older than her so her parents must be older than you._

_Classes are really good so far! I can turn a match into  
a needle all by myself! Real magic, Mum! We have a woman  
called Professor McGonagall for Transfiguration; she's a  
bit old so you might have had her too. We have this tiny  
little wizard called Flitwick in Charms, he taught us how to  
Levitate a feather! It was so cool! I have Professor Sprout  
in Herbology; she's always covered in mud and stuff, and  
Professor Sinistra for Astronomy. And we've got a ghost  
for our teacher in History of Magic. I thought that would  
be cool, but he's really boring!_

_But my Potions teacher really, really, really, really, really  
doesn't like me. And I don't know why! I didn't do anything!  
But the minute he called my name on the roll he looked like  
he could just strangle me! And he was so scary! He's called  
Professor Snape. Do you know him? And I know I told you I  
wouldn't do anything about this, but did my father do  
anything that would make Snape not like me? I heard you  
tell Dumbledore that life could be hard at school for me if  
people knew who my father was. Do you mean like that? I  
kept my promise though; I didn't ask him or say anything  
about it to anyone!_

_Lots of love, from Lucie_

Lucie didn't mail the letter until that weekend, but was very anxious to get back her reply and hopefully learn about Professor Snape. She had been in his class again that week and it had not been very pleasant. His opinion of her had not changed one tiny bit.

"You said your Mum went to Hogwarts right?" Tommy asked Lucie on Saturday afternoon.

"Yeah, why?" Lucie frowned.

"Well," Tommy gestured to himself and Will, who was with him. "We were wondering about Snape. Cause maybe he was just in bad mood the first time, but he was just the same on Wednesday."

"That's what I thought too. But why do you guys care about it?" Lucie frowned.

"McGonagall said our house was supposed to be like our family." Will said promptly. "So if someone's being a prat to one of my house, we should figure out why. Sadly," Will added, frowning as well, though Lucie's frown had turned to a grin. "We can't do much about it, he's a teacher."

"Yeah," Lucie sighed. "Oh well, he can't get any worse, can he? I asked my mum if she knew him or something. Maybe they really didn't like each other when they were at school." Lucie shrugged. "I'll tell you when she writes me back!"

"Good," Tommy nodded seriously. "And if not, we can always poison him." He added cheerfully and all three of them started laughing.

_Dear Lucie,_

_Snape is a professor? How? And if that doesn't answer  
your question, yes I knew him. But no, I'm not going to  
talk about it because I know your next letter would be  
asking me to tell you all about Snape. Suffice it to say he  
and I just weren't all that close. No, no, your dad has  
absolutely nothing to do with any of this, don't worry,  
he's way out of the picture. Snape was just really not  
all that fond of me. And good that you didn't go asking  
around. I expect you to keep that promise._

_Alright, we'll leave any letters to or from Haley Allen alone._

_I had McGonagall, Sprout and Flitwick! How do you like them?  
That's very cool that you can do real magic. Dad said he can't  
wait to see you do magic but I told him he'll have to wait  
because you aren't allowed to do magic until you're seventeen._

_Maddie asked when you were coming back this morning. She  
to cry when I said not until Christmas. Maybe you could write  
her a letter. One that's just specially for her, she'd like that._

_Lots of love from all of us,_

_Mum_

Lucie sighed as she read the letter. Maddie didn't even know how to read, why on earth was Lucie supposed to write her a letter? And Lucie didn't feel like drawing Maddie a picture.

"Okay, so he and my mum were at school together and they didn't like each other." Lucie told Will and Tommy that night. "But she said my dad was way out of the picture so maybe my dad was a Muggle. She wouldn't tell me anything about him." Lucie said but as soon as she did she was pretty sure her dad wasn't a Muggle, Professor Dumbledore had known about him. "Or maybe my dad was a few years older or something and my mum just didn't know him yet."

"Yeah," Tommy agreed. "Well. That's rubbish then, isn't it?" He shook his head. "Just cause he didn't like your mum… he holds a bit of a grudge, I guess."

"You three are being a bit dim, aren't you?" Emma and Haley had appeared. "Sorry," Emma smiled at them. "Couldn't help hearing what you said. You're probably right that Snape's got a grudge, but Lucie said that her mum said she and Snape weren't very close. That must mean he liked her mum at school and her mum turned him down or something." Emma shook her head like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Lucie frowned, she hadn't thought of that. And now that Emma said it, it kind of made sense. Maybe that was it.

"Yeah, but come on, my mum is thirty two. Last time she was at Hogwarts she was seventeen. It's been almost fifteen years, how would he _still_ not be over one time that some girl turned him down?" Lucie asked.

"I don't know," Emma shrugged. "But that's the most likely thing."

"Yeah, I'm sure it is." Haley agreed and the two of them left.

"You think it might be?" Lucie asked the two boys immediately.

"Could be." Will said. "Or maybe they just didn't like each other. He's head of Slytherin isn't he? And your mum told you she was a Gryffindor? I don't think too many Slytherins all are that interested in Gryffindors."

"Yeah, I reckon they just didn't like each other." Tommy said.

"We don't even know if they were in the same year or not." Will added.

"Maybe your mum put a funny jinx on him one time." Tommy said, laughing.

"Yeah, maybe she was always going around Charming things strangely, you think your mum liked to pull pranks?" Will asked.

"No, she'd probably think pranks were funny, but I don't think she was the sort that pranked." Lucie said. "Now have you two seen Ginny? I've been looking for her for ages."

"She's over there." Will pointed across the common room; Ginny was sitting with Charlotte and Maggie and all three of them were writing on large sheets of parchment. "Charlotte said earlier she wanted to finish her homework this weekend and be free tomorrow. Not a bad idea, actually. You think we should do some work then, Tommy?" Will turned to Tommy who frowned.

"Yeah, I guess." He sighed. "Shame, really. You coming, too?" He asked Lucie. She nodded and the three of them walked across the room toward Maggie, Charlotte and Ginny. They passed Colin Creevey exclaiming excitedly over a photograph to the fourth first year Gryffindor boy, Peter Harold and Emma and Haley were laughing together on one of the couches.

* * *

"That one's Harry Potter!"

"I know who he is, Ginny," Lucie told Ginny as they walked to class in the beginning of October. "You've been pointing him out to me every morning for a month." Ginny turned dark red.

"Not every morning." She mumbled, watching as Harry and her brother Ron and a girl with bushy hair whose name Lucie was not totally sure of walked down the corridor in the opposite direction.

"Yeah but pretty much, and you're always just going on about him. You haven't told me anything about your brother or that girl who was with them. Who is she?"

"Hermione Granger." Ginny said immediately. "Ron says she's super smart, best in their year and she's Muggleborn but I don't really know anything else about her." Ginny frowned. "Oh well, she's nice, I met her once in Diagon Alley."

"You said Harry Potter was raised by Muggles and didn't know anything about magic, right?" Lucie asked and Ginny nodded, turning a bit red again. "You know, I bet he and I are probably the only two people who were born into magical families but grew up like Muggles." She sighed. "It's not fair! You're so lucky you were raised with magic."

"Are you sure your dad wasn't a Muggle?" Ginny asked. "Maybe your mum hadn't told your dad about magic and he didn't like it so he left."

"I don't think so," Lucie frowned, here again was a possibility she hadn't considered. "Because Professor Dumbledore knew of him."

"Did he?" Ginny asked, surprised. "Well, I think Professor Dumbledore knows everybody, maybe even some Muggles." She shrugged. "I don't know."

Lucie really wanted to know what was wrong with her father. She was about ninety percent sure he had been a wizard but couldn't be positive about it. But then what had he done? Dumbledore had made it sound like he had done something wrong, and her mother had certainly made it sound like whatever he had done was terrible enough that no one would want to be Lucie's friend if they knew who her father was, which was another clue that her father was a wizard. Most of these kids would not likely be too fussed about some Muggle criminal. Lucie didn't like the idea that her father was a criminal.

* * *

Lucie was starting to notice that Ginny took her diary with her all the time. It was always in her bag and Ginny wrote in it every night for more than ten minutes. And she spent a lot of time writing in it on the weekends. Lucie didn't keep a diary and so wasn't entirely sure but she thought Ginny spent more time than was entirely natural writing in her diary.

"What are you always writing about?" Lucie asked Ginny one afternoon halfway through October. It was Friday afternoon and they had no classes and Ginny had immediately pulled her diary out of her bag and began to write.

"Nothing," Ginny snapped the diary shut. "I... you know, just about what I'm doing and what I feel. What do you think diaries are for?"

"I bet if I looked in there I'd just find page after page of how great Harry Potter is." Lucie giggled and Ginny blushed deeply but looked terrified at the same time.

"No you wouldn't." She frowned.

"I would too." Lucie grinned at Ginny. "It's probably all complaining about how he never talks to you and never looks at you and all about how wonderful he is and how he saved the world from You-Know-Who." She giggled again. "Why don't you just go and talk to him?" Ginny looked scandalized.

"I can't!" She said with a frown. "Honest, Lucie, don't you know anything?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Lucie said and Ginny nodded firmly. "You always turn bright red and act all weird and idiotic when he's around. That's probably a good idea."

"That's not what I meant, Lucie Cupit!" Ginny said, turning as red as her hair but giggling at the same time.

"I know," Lucie grinned. "But it's true, anyway. I bet you didn't say anything to him the entire time he was staying at your house this summer."

"That's not true!" Ginny said.

"Really? And what did you say?" Lucie giggled.

"I... I told him… I told off Draco Malfoy for making fun of him in Diagon Alley!" Ginny said triumphantly and then seemed to realize that that did not prove her point. "And… and I said hello in the morning." She added, not meeting Lucie's eyes.

"Bravo, Ginny, really top notch." Lucie laughed. Lucie noticed Ginny's eyes kept flashing back down away from Lucie's face into the diary in her lap. Lucie sighed. "It's fine, I'll leave you alone, you can write in that." She stood up and went away. When she looked back Ginny was writing in the diary but she looked very worried. Lucie wasn't sure what was going on with Ginny and that diary but both Maggie and Charlotte kept diaries as well and neither of them ever wrote in them for more than five minutes and it was always at the end of the day, never during the middle of the afternoon.

* * *

Lucie hated Lockhart's lessons. But she was the only girl who did. Charlotte and Maggie and Ginny were all slowly becoming less and less impressed with him, but Emma and Haley seemed to become more and more in love with him every day. All they did was read his books for homework and then they had to discuss them in class, which meant that Lockhart would call on someone and ask them what their favorite part of last night's chapter had been. It was thoroughly boring. Emma and Haley were constantly raising their hand and saying they almost died of fright when he described being cornered by a werewolf or attacked by a rampaging yeti.

Lucie had taken to bringing something else to class and usually worked on other homework during the lesson, though always keeping a copy of the book they were discussing open in case Lockhart came over. He seemed keen to get her opinion on things because she was a Cupit and therefore a tiny bit famous. Will and Tommy shared Lucie's opinion of Lockhart, Peter seemed to be unsure what to think and Colin was fascinated by all the things Lockhart had done.

"Come on, Ginny!" Lucie said, tugging on Ginny's arm, but Ginny was writing in her diary and seemed to hardly notice Lucie. "Ginny, let's go, we'll be late for the feast!" It was Halloween and the school was having a big feast. "Ginny! Hello!" Lucie waved a hand in front of Ginny's face and Ginny finally turned to look at Lucie. Lucie frowned, Ginny looked somehow different, she wasn't sure why, but the look in Ginny's eye was not remotely like it usually was.

"I'm not very hungry, I'll come in a bit, just go on without me." Ginny told her and went back to the diary.

"Fine." Lucie snapped. Ginny had been getting slowly more and more distant as she became more and more reliant on her diary. It was like she needed it. Lucie had begun to sometimes feel annoyed with Ginny when she blew everyone off to write in that diary. Every once in a while Lucie wondered if there was something wrong with the diary but she thought if there was Ginny would have told someone.

Lucie hurried down the stairs, trying to put her annoyance with Ginny out of her head and enjoy herself at the feast. She ran down the corridor and caught up with her friends.

"Where's Ginny?" Haley asked.

"Not hungry," Lucie frowned. "She's writing in her diary and she said she'll be down in a bit."

"She's _always_ writing in that thing." Colin said.

"I know!" Lucie glared around. "It's annoying. She never has time for anyone else now."

"You can hang out with us, though." Emma said. "If she doesn't want real friends, it's not our problem."

"I just want to know why!" Lucie said, feeling frustrated. "At the beginning of the year, she was totally normal, she's just slowly gotten more and more… different… I don't know and just now she was really weird. I have no idea what it was but she just seemed like a different person." Lucie shrugged. "Oh well, no more worrying. I want to enjoy myself." She laughed and they went into the Great Hall.

After her third helping of ice cream, Lucie was feeling rather tired. She had eaten a lot and was definitely ready for bed. But Ginny had never come. And that was bothering Lucie. Ginny had said she would be down in a bit, but she had never come down at all.

"Wonder what happened to Ginny." Will remarked to Lucie and Tommy as the whole school trouped out of the Great Hall.

"Oh well, she decided she'd rather write in her diary than talk to us." Lucie snapped, feeling annoyed again. "Now what is going on?" People were stopping and it was hard to keep going, then it was impossible.

Emma nudged Haley and pointed upward, a look of fear on her face, Lucie followed her finger and gasped in surprise. Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, was hanging by her tail from a lamp on the wall and in red, glistening writing above her on the wall were the words: **The Chamber of Secrets has been reopened. Enemies of the heir beware.**

"**Enemies of the heir beware? You'll be next Mudbloods."** Draco Malfoy's voice rang out loud and clear through the silence.

"What heir?" Lucie whispered to Will. "What's the Chamber of Secrets?" She had never heard of it before but it seemed most people were quiet scared. But if Lucie paid closer attention, she was not alone in her confusion; all the Muggleborns were whispering questions to their friends.

Will didn't answer because Dumbledore had come, but he began to when Dumbledore sent everyone except for Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger back to their dorms. Lucie hadn't noticed Harry, Ron and Hermione because she hadn't been close enough to see them.

"The heir of Slytherin. Salazar Slytherin. There's this old legend that says he put a secret chamber in the school that none of the other founders knew about and in it he hid this awful monster. And when he walked out of the school, he shouted that his monster would kill all the people he didn't think were worthy to be at Hogwarts when his own true heir came to school." Will said and Lucie gaped at him. "It's just a myth though, everyone knows it isn't true. Whoever wrote that up was just pulling a really lame joke. And I think killing Mrs. Norris was taking it a bit far."

"Did they really kill that cat?" Lucie asked.

"Sure looked like it." Tommy said. "Well, whoever did it'll be caught for sure. I don't reckon Dumbledore will really like someone telling everyone the Chamber of Secrets is open. They'll probably be expelled."

"Hey, I bet Ginny doesn't know yet." Lucie said. "I'm going to tell her. Though maybe she won't want to see me. She's probably still writing in her diary and hasn't realized it's been hours." She added bitterly and went up the spiral staircase. "Ginny! You'll never guess what happened just now!" Lucie opened the door and hurried inside. She stopped, staring in confusion at Ginny's empty bed. "Ginny?" She called, looking around the room. She knocked on the bathroom door, no one answered so she pushed it open but Ginny wasn't there either. "Ginny!"

"She isn't up there." Lucie said when she got back downstairs.

"What do you mean?" Will frowned. "Where else would she be?"

"Maybe she decided to come to the feast but she didn't realize it was over. She'll probably be back in like a minute." Tommy said.

But Ginny did not come back in a few minutes; she didn't even come back in half an hour. Everyone had gone to bed and turned off their lights, though Lucie wasn't asleep, she wanted to know what Ginny was up to, when the door to their dorm room creaked slowly and carefully open. Lucie parted her bed curtains the tiniest amount and watched as Ginny shut the door as quietly as she could. Something seemed to be wrong with Ginny, she didn't appear to have full control of herself, she almost walked straight into Lucie's bed and almost crashed her head into her own bed as she bent down to find her pajamas. Then she went in the bathroom and Lucie heard her turn on the sink. Ginny let the water run for a very long time and stayed in the bathroom for a long time after that.

Ginny finally came back in her pajamas with her robes in a messy bundle that seemed to be dripping though Lucie couldn't imagine why Ginny would have washed her robes when there was a perfectly good laundry she could have put them in.

"Where have you been?" Lucie asked as Ginny moved in the direction of the door with her wet robes. At the sound of Lucie's voice, Ginny jumped so hard she dropped the robes and fell down. Lucie climbed out of bed and walked over to Ginny. "Where were you all evening?"

"I was… I was," Ginny faltered, she looked terrified and Lucie couldn't understand it.

"You never came down to the feast and when we got back here, you were gone. And guess what you missed? Someone Petrified Mrs. Norris," Harry, Ron and Hermione had got back to the common room and the story had spread pretty fast. "and wrote on the wall that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened again and the enemies of the heir had better watch out. It almost looked like they wrote it in blood or something. But I hope it was just red paint. It was so creepy! So where have you been? It's like ten thirty!"

"I went to go and find you guys but the feast was…" Ginny mumbled to the floor and then broke off, looking up in absolute horror at Lucie. "Did you say red paint?"

"Yes… why?" Lucie frowned.

"No reason!" Ginny said and clutched her robes tighter in her arms as she gulped fearfully. "And it said the Chamber of Secrets had been opened again? But how? And who?"

"No one knows for sure, Filch thinks it was Harry, Ron and Hermione because they were all there when everyone got there. We were all leaving the feast and we found them standing there by Mrs. Norris under the message. It was so scary."

"Harry didn't do it!" Ginny said, frowning at Lucie.

"I don't think he did either, but then who did?" Lucie asked. "So now where have you been all evening?"

"I told you I was looking for you at the feast." Ginny said quickly. "And I've got to go, these need to be washed, I'm taking them to the laundry." Ginny held up the robes and disappeared down the spiral staircase.

Lucie sighed, annoyed, she felt like Ginny was hiding something or just didn't like her anymore. She hoped Ginny didn't not like her anymore because she had thought Ginny was really nice. Lucie climbed back into bed and snapped the curtains shut, determined to stay awake until Ginny got back but fell asleep before she did. It was boring enough waiting for Ginny to get back that in the morning Lucie had no idea if she had waited an hour or thirty seconds.

_Please review! I know I'm going kinda quick, but I don't want to have a 12 chapter first year like last time..... and the chapters wil be getting shorter.._

_Love, Lily_


	5. Chapter 4

_So basically I am feeling slightly stuck on the next few chapters as (though I am very embarrased to admit it...) i am not completely a genius on the exact order of events in COS so i have to get to the library.._

_But anyway, here goes!_

Chapter 7

"I don't write in it all the time!" Ginny frowned at Lucie.

"You do so write in it all the time. Just try and not write in it for a day and see if it kills you." Lucie frowned back. She was fed up with how much Ginny wrote in her diary and had decided to ask Ginny about it. Ginny hardly had any time for anything else. "The rest of us get along okay by talking to real people, not a book, you can too! You don't need the thing for life."

"I don't _need_ it, I just like writing in it." Ginny glared at Lucie turned away. Lucie huffed loudly and stomped across the common room.

"Lucie!" Emma called when Lucie passed her and Haley. "Lucie, can you help us here? You said you've already this, but I don't understand Switching Spells."

"I don't know either." Lucie said quickly. "Maggie explained it to me. You could ask her." She sat down heavily on the couch next to Haley.

"What's up with you?" Haley asked.

"Ginny." Lucie frowned. "She never does _anything_ except write in her diary and then she denies that it's all she does. It's annoying. Look, she's writing in it now." Ginny was indeed writing in her diary. Lucie couldn't believe it. Ginny had just been trying to tell her she didn't write in her diary all the time and there she was, writing in it. She did need it, no matter what she said; and it really _was_ like she couldn't live without it. "I'd just take it and get rid of it if I didn't know for sure she'd learn a spell to kill me."

"Yeah, but you don't need to hang out with her either. She obviously doesn't want normal friends." Emma said dismissively. "You can hang out with us and you hang out with Will and Tommy a lot, why don't you just be their friend? Ginny can be our friend again if she wants to, you don't have to be her mother."

"I know," Lucie frowned; she wasn't sure how to explain how she felt. "But I want her to want to be my friend. I want to know what changed. I think there's a problem, but I don't know what it is and I want to help her but she doesn't want help." She sighed. "Oh well, you're right Emma, I have other friends."

Lucie found herself going back and forth between Emma and Haley and Will and Tommy. She usually worked on her homework with Charlotte and Maggie because they were both quite smart and could explain things when she didn't understand but Lucie often got bored when she hung out with the two of them because they were always reading or talking about books they had read and books they wanted to read and Lucie got thoroughly bored with books after the first few chapters unless something really exciting happened.

Emma and Haley were fun to be with and Lucie got to be her more girly self around them. They were always giggling and always chatting but Lucie got annoyed when they started talking about Professor Lockhart who they both still idolized.

Most fun to be around were Will and Tommy. They were always joking and always talking and they always had some new plan up their sleeves about how to get Snape sacked. None of them would ever work and they never tried any of them but after Snape had decided, without an obvious or legitimate reason, that he hated Lucie they had decided they hated him. And it didn't help that he favored the Slytherins to no extent and was wholly unfair to the Gryffindors. And they both thought Lockhart was a fraud so when they had exhausted the topic of getting Snape fired, they moved on to exposing Lockhart.

Peter and Colin were a bit too excitable for Lucie's tastes. Colin wanted to take pictures of everything and everyone so he could send them home to his family. He, like Ginny, idolized Harry and spent a good deal of time following him around and asking him questions and trying to take pictures of him.

* * *

"What _is_ he doing?" Lucie asked Will at the end of a Gryffindor-Slytherin Quidditch match as she watched Colin try to run down to the field.

The Gryffindors had all been horrified the entire time because somebody had fixed a Bludger to chase Harry, who was their Seeker, and it had been trying to kill him the whole game. The Bludger had hit Harry on the elbow and he had dived forward, it looked like he was trying to attack Draco Malfoy but then at the last second everyone noticed he was stretching his good hand out and grabbed the Snitch but then fell off his broom because he was only holding on with his legs. When he hit the ground, Colin had run out of the stands with his camera, trying to take pictures of Harry.

"He's trying to make a photo documentary of Harry's life." Will replied, laughing. "But I hope Harry's okay."

"Ew!" Tommy exclaimed. "Lockhart just removed Harry's bones." He burst out laughing and pointed down at the pitch where it was true, Harry was being helped away by Ron and Hermione and his right arm looked like a long skin colored worm, hanging limply at his side.

"Lockhart didn't do that!" Emma told Tommy, looking horrified at the very thought. "He knows way better."

"I saw him do it, Emma. He's not as great as you think he is."

"Just read his books, Tommy!" Emma frowned back.

"Then why haven't we learned any Defense yet?" Tommy countered. Emma apparently didn't have an answer because she just sniffed and started a conversation with Haley.

"Do you think Harry's alright?" Lucie didn't care whether it had been Ginny or Colin who had spoken. She was sick and tired of that sentence. Ginny hadn't even written in her diary all afternoon, that was how worried she was. And Colin was just being Colin and both of them were driving Lucie up the wall. This time it had been Colin and now, Lucie was both surprised and not remotely surprised to see, Ginny was scribbling furiously in her diary.

"I'm sure he's fine." Charlotte answered, all the fed-upness that Lucie felt was apparent in Charlotte's voice as well.

"If you're so worried, go and visit him." Tommy told Colin.

"Hey, yeah! I should. I bet he's hungry though, he missed dinner. I should bring him some food. But I don't know where the kitchens are." Colin added, looking depressed.

"My brothers do." Ginny looked up. "My twin brothers, you could ask them." She continued to write as if her life depended on it. "I think I'm going upstairs." Ginny said and without another word she rose and Lucie felt sure she looked somehow weird, different, like she had before the feast on Halloween.

"Who are her twin brothers?" Colin asked.

"The only identical twin redheads in Gryffindor." Lucie replied. "Them." She pointed over at the corner of the common room where Fred and George Weasley were whispering together with their friend who Lucie didn't know and who had dreadlocks. "Come on, I'll ask if you're too scared to." She said, because Colin had turned sort of white at the idea of going up to three fourth years and asking where the kitchen was.

Colin stood up nervously and followed Lucie over to the Weasley twins.

"Um, hi." Lucie said and they looked up. "You're Fred and George, right?" They nodded. "I'm Lucie, this is Colin, we're friends with your sister. She said you know where the kitchens are, do you? Colin wants to go and visit Harry and he thought he'd bring some food." One of the twins laughed and Colin turned a bit red.

"Yeah," the one who hadn't laughed said. "It's down in the basement, the entrance is a big painting of fruit. You have to tickle the pear."

"Thanks." Lucie smiled. "Let's go." She said to Colin.

"Are you coming with me?" Colin asked.

"Just to the kitchen. I'm hungry." She grinned.

The two of them walked down to the Great Hall and then down the stairs to the basement, pausing at every turn because they were out after curfew and breaking the rules.

"Right here!" Colin whispered, pointing at a large painting of fruit. He reached up, glancing nervously at Lucie and sort of poked the pear a few times.

"No, you've got to tickle it." Lucie said and reached up and tickled the pear which granted them entry and the painting swung open. "Colin…" Lucie asked quietly when they saw what was in the kitchen. "What _are_ they?" Colin shook his head in confusion.

The kitchen was full of tiny little creatures with bat like ears and were roughly the same height as goblins. They had very big bulging eyes and were all wearing tea towels stamped with the Hogwarts crest. As soon as Lucie and Colin stepped into the kitchen about seven of them came running up to them asking in high pitched, squeaky voices what they wanted.

"Er… I don't know, what have you got?" Lucie asked them. "Have you got any cake? I would love to eat some chocolate cake right now." Four of them hurried away and returned with a very large chocolate cake. "Wow, that looks really good." Lucie grinned. "These things are so cool." She whispered to Colin who was taking pictures as fast as his camera would go. "But I don't want that much." She added to the creatures. "And what do you want, Colin?"

"I don't know. He's sick so he should have something healthy. Fruit maybe. I really like grapes, maybe Harry does too." Colin said. "Can I have some grapes?" Two of the creatures went scurrying off and returned shortly, each with a large bunch of grapes in their hands. Colin took them happily. "Thanks!"

"Oh, thank you!" Lucie found herself being presented with about half the chocolate cake, on a plate, all sliced up. "I think we should go now. We're already out past curfew. Bye!" Lucie called to the little creatures and they bowed and waved and smiled as Lucie and Colin left. "So do you have any idea what those things were?"

"No, I got loads of pictures of them, though."

They had just gotten to the Great Hall when they saw someone small walking quickly down a corridor a ways down the corridor they were headed to.

"Colin… was that _Ginny_?" Lucie asked. It had sure looked like Ginny, but what was she doing out?

"I think so, but what's she doing?"

"Maybe she's going to visit Harry, if you hurry up, you can probably catch up with her, I'm going back to the common room." Lucie said. But Colin didn't hurry off to find Ginny and when they got to where they had seen her and looked down the adjoining corridor, she was nowhere to be seen.

"Where do you think she went?" Colin asked and Lucie shrugged but then thought of something.

"Well, there's a girls bathroom just down that corridor, nobody goes in it cause there this really weird ghost in there, but maybe she really had to go. See you later, Colin." Lucie said and turned toward Gryffindor Tower as Colin jogged off to the Hospital Wing.

"Did you see Ginny?" Emma asked Lucie as soon as she got back into the common room. "Oh! Where did you get that?" Emma noticed that cake in Lucie's hands.

"Kitchens. They've got these really strange little creatures in there, though."

"House elves." Will said immediately. "Now can I have a piece of cake?"

"Hey, how about giving us a piece? We told you were it was." Fred and George Weasley had come over. Lucie held up the plate and they both took a slice. Lucie bit into her own piece of cake which was very, very good.

"Now what was that about Ginny?" Lucie asked Emma. "We saw someone who we thought might be Ginny but we weren't close enough to tell for sure and when we got to where she was, she was gone."

"Yeah, it was really weird. She just left. She went upstairs and about a minute after you and Colin left, she came hurrying downstairs and left. Didn't even glance at us when we all asked what she was doing." Emma said. "I don't know what is up with her."

"I think she was in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom." Lucie giggled. "She had disappeared down that corridor and I can't think of anywhere else she would have gone in there."

"Well, if she really had to go… god I would not ever want to go in there. Myrtle's always crying and moaning on about being dead." Haley giggled.

"Well, of course she's moaning, that's why they call her Moaning Myrtle." Charlotte snapped, looking at Haley like she thought Haley was not one of the smartest girls around. Lucie could tell that Charlotte didn't like Emma and Haley very much. She was always very short with them, especially if one of them said something that was sort of obvious. She usually didn't want to help them all that much, but Maggie would always help them so Charlotte had to as well.

"It's a bit weird Colin isn't back yet." Maggie remarked as they all went up to bed. "I would have thought Madame Pomphrey would have kicked him out really soon, I thought she might not have even let him in at all."

"Maybe he got lost on the way back." Emma giggled.

"Well Ginny isn't back either." Lucie said. "She's getting very weird, you know."

But just as Lucie had spoken, the door had slowly opened and Ginny stepped in and shot them all terrified looks when she saw the dorm room was full of people.

"Ginny, what's wrong? Where were you?" Lucie asked.

"I... I... I went to visit Harry, I was really worried about him, you know, so… so I thought I'd go and make sure he was okay."

"Did you see Colin?"

"What?" Ginny frowned. "No… no, I didn't see Colin."

"Well he went to visit Harry too." Lucie said. "We saw you out in the corridors but then you disappeared. What were you doing? You were going in the complete wrong direction for the Hospital Wing."

"Oh, was I?" Ginny looked really quite scared and Lucie didn't understand it. "I took a wrong turn. And I'm really tired, I think I'll go to bed." And without even changing into her pajamas, Ginny jumped into her bed and yanked her curtains shut. Lucie sighed and exchanged a look with the other girls before they all went to bed as well.

* * *

The next morning was a Saturday and Lucie wanted to sleep in but was woken up by a loud knocking on the dormitory door at about eight thirty. She pulled back her curtains and noticed all the other girls were doing the same. The door opened and a third year girl Lucie didn't really know was standing there.

"Sorry to wake you guys up, but one of the boys in your class says you need to get down there really quick. He said it's an emergency." The girl said and shrugged to show she didn't know what had happened and left.

"I wonder why they didn't just come up here themselves." Haley frowned as she stumbled out of bed.

"They can't come up here." Charlotte answered immediately, frowning at Haley. "Boys can't come up the girls dorms. It's not allowed. The staircase turns into a slide so no one can get up. I guess you didn't read up about Hogwarts." She added in an undertone.

They all stumbled down the stairs in various states of dressed and pajamas to find Will, Tommy and Peter all pacing around the nearly deserted common room looking to be in plenty of stress.

"What do you want?" Lucie asked, tripping over her feet as she came to a tired halt before the boys.

"Why are you up so early?" Emma asked, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"Colin never came back last night." Peter said. "And I went to the Hospital Wing this morning to ask Madame Pomphrey what happened, because I wasn't sure if he even went to visit Harry, we didn't understand what happened, and he was there, Colin, he's been… Petrified." Peter finished, looking horrified. Ginny let out a gasp of horror and collapsed on the couch nearest her. Lucie was sure she had heard wrong, Colin couldn't be Petrified, it was just that cat, not a person too. Emma and Haley were both staring wide eyed at Peter, Charlotte was slowly shaking her head and Maggie had sat down on the couch next to Ginny.

* * *

For all she wanted to put on a brave face, Lucie was scared. This time it had been a person. A boy in her class, in her House. Lucie had written to tell her mother and asked what her mother knew about the Chamber of Secrets but her mother didn't have much to tell her. She had said it was unlikely the two things were related, that probably some kid had thought it was funny to write something about the Chamber of Secrets being opened again though she couldn't come up with anything about the Petrifying and seemed just as scared as Lucie. She had warned Lucie not to wander the castle alone or after curfew but Lucie didn't need to be told. She felt she was lucky to not have been Petrified herself, she and Colin had both been out that night, was it mere chance that who or whatever had found Colin hadn't found her? And the same with Ginny. Ginny could have been Petrified as well, they were both really lucky.

"I'm sorry I was so mad at you, Ginny." Lucie said, shuffling her feet and looking at the floor a few days after Colin was Petrified. It was spooky how quiet it seemed with him gone. He hadn't been the only one to talk, but without his constant prattle about how great magic and Hogwarts and Harry Potter were, things seemed quite dower.

"You were mad at me?" Ginny asked, frowning.

"Well, sort of." Lucie said, still not making eye contact, if there was one thing Lucie hated doing it was apologizing and admitting she had been wrong. She hated that. But she wanted Ginny to know she wasn't mad because what if Ginny had been Petrified and the last thing Lucie had done was yell at her for only writing in her diary all the time? "Cause you write in that diary all the time. And I was mad that you didn't want to talk to me. Sorry." Lucie muttered lamely, glancing up at Ginny who looked both pleased and a little confused.

"Thanks." Ginny said, cocking her head to the side at Lucie. "But I'm really not sure what you mean, when were you mad at me?"

"Not like one particular time," Lucie's eyes were back on the floor. "But I had been sort of mad for a while… anyway, I don't mean it, I promise. We're friends, right?"

"'Course we are…" Ginny frowned a little. "What are you on about, Lucie?"

"Nevermind." Lucie grinned. She didn't care if Ginny was for some strange reason unaware Lucie had been a bit mad, as long as they were friends again, it was okay.

"Did you hear?" Emma and Haley came running up to the rest of the Gryffindor first years and both appeared to be almost dying with excitement.

"We don't know… you have to tell us…" Will frowned at Emma when she just smiled hopefully at them.

"Professor Lockhart is starting a Dueling Club!" Haley squealed happily.

"What's that?" Lucie asked.

"Wizard fight." Tommy answered. "It's like… fighting with swords I guess, only wands and spells and stuff."

"Oh," Lucie giggled. "Cause for Muggles, dueling means standing apart with guns and then shooting at each other."

"Aren't guns those metal things that shoot little rocks at people and they die?" Tommy asked and Lucie burst out laughing. "What?" Tommy frowned.

"Nothing, nothing at all." Lucie giggled. "And yes, that's what they are." She started laughing harder again.

"So anyway, Lockhart's going to teach us how!!" Emma said loudly, bringing everyone's attention back on her and Haley and their news.

"You reckon he even knows how to duel?" Tommy whispered to Will and Lucie who began to laugh, earning themselves glares from Emma.

"We're really going to learn how to fight like he knows how to!" Haley gushed. "We always told you three he'd teach us how to fight!" She turned with a defiant glare to Will, Tommy and Lucie.

"Alright, Haley, I'll make a bet with you." Tommy stood up and held his hand out to Haley. "I'll bet you five galleons that we don't learn anything worthwhile from Lockhart. _And_ if he does tell us something important, he can't demonstrate it."

"That's a waste of five galleons, Tommy." Emma said, sighing impatiently. "But if you want to throw your money away…"

"Well?" Tommy asked Haley. "I'll bet you too, Emma." He threw Emma a competitive look which she returned without missing a beat.

"Absolutely." Emma said immediately and shook Tommy's hand.

"Me too." Haley said, smiling at Emma. Lucie felt sure Haley was only agreeing because Emma had, but decided it would not help anything to bring that thought up.

"So," Will said loudly a few minutes later when the conversation had moved on. "What are you going to do with ten galleons?" He glanced over at Emma and Haley with a grin. They were glaring back at them.

_Please tell me what you think!_

_Love, Lily_


	6. Chapter 5

_hey guys! So as i said in my last "chapter", I'm sorry about it being almost a year since my last update... There really aren't any excuses except that i have been completely, 100% swamped and stressed all year. I am so glad life has calmed down!_

_Anyway, you're probably all angry with me (if any of you will forgive me and read the story.. ) so I'll shut up._

_Here we go again!_

Chapter 5

"_Harry_ _Potter is the heir of Slytherin!"_

"_What's _he_ doing in _Gryffindor?"

"_Did you hear him talking to that snake?"_

"_Did you see him set it on Justin?"_

"_And then he went and Petrified Justin cause the snake couldn't finish him off!"_

Hogwarts was full of whispers. And sometimes yells. Not everyone was very subtle in their declarations that Harry Potter was behind all the scare. Lucie didn't know what to think. Harry didn't seem like the sort, not that she knew him at all, just she'd heard enough about how wonderful he was from Ginny that he didn't seem like a villain at all. And Ginny was also weird. She seemed horrified at the idea that Harry was the heir of Slytherin, but at the same time almost relieved. Lucie didn't understand it at all. Lucie didn't think Ginny's relief had anything to do with school accusation of Harry, but she seemed strangely relieved about something.

* * *

All the students were back from Christmas break but no one had seemed to gain any doubt about Harry's guilt over the holidays. Ron and Hermione of course remained fast by Harry's side and never had had any doubt in him that Lucie could see.

Emma and Haley were still mad at Tommy and Will. Tommy had sure enough got his ten galleons from them after the Dueling Club. No one could deny that Lockhart had not lived up to expectations, although Emma sure tried. She maintained that, as Lockhart had said, he had only let Snape curse him to show the students the effects of theDisarming Spell but Haley had given up and only glared very fiercely when someone mentioned something negative about the Club.

"Anyone have anywhere near a foot?" Tommy glared at his Potions paper.

Emma smiled smugly in response and he glared back at her.

"I do, need help?" Charlotte asked and rolled her eyes at Emma. Emma frowned at her and went back to working with Haley.

"Are you writing in a diary?" Ginny asked Lucie, frowning in confusion. She looked a bit worried.

"Yeah," Lucie shrugged. "My mum used to always try to get me to and you liked yours so much, I thought I'd give it a try. It's pretty dull though, I have no idea how you could have written in it so much."

"Oh." Ginny shrugged.

"Speaking of, where is your diary? I haven't seen it in ages." Lucie asked and glanced up in time to see Ginny turn red.

"I – I um…lost it." Ginny said, looking down. "A while ago."

"I thought it was your baby." Lucie said and began to giggle. Ginny grinned at her.

"Oh well. I'm glad it's gone." Ginny smiled at Lucie and laughed. "It wasn't helping me any. I wrote in it too much."

"You really did." Lucie grinned back. "I'm glad you're over it."

* * *

"Don't go in there. I promise you'll regret it." Tommy tolled Lucie, Ginny, Emma and Haley when they got to the doors of the Great Hall Valentine's Day morning.

"Why are you eating breakfast out here?" Emma asked Will, she wasn't really mad at him anymore. She just still thought she was right.

"Because it hurts to be in there." Will said. "It is physically painful."

"Nah, Emma and Haley'll like it. I'm just not so sure about Lucie and Ginny." Tommy grinned. "But feel free, just remember, we warned you."

Lucie glanced over at the doors to the Great Hall. They seemed perfectly normal.

"Yeah," Will snickered. "Enter at your own risk." Both boys began to laugh. Lucie shared a shrug with the other girls and they went inside. What Will and Tommy were talking about was _immediately_ apparent.

Lockhart had decorated the Great Hall. And Will was right. It was shocking and rather hurt the eyes to see that much pink and purple.

"Oh god." Lucie raised her eyebrows. "That is really something."

"Can you believe it?" Emma squealed to Haley. Lucie rolled her eyes. Of course they would react like that. "It's like Valentine's Day exploded in here!"

"More like threw up." Ginny whispered to Lucie and they both began to giggle. But then Harry, Ron and Hermione walked by and Ginny started to stare at Harry and then at the decorations and then turned bright red.

"You're hopeless, you know that?" Lucie laughed. She was very glad she wasn't obsessed with anyone. It took up far too much time as far as Lucie could see.

There were dwarfs roaming the school throughout the day, set loose by Lockhart, to give people valentines. Lucie wasn't expecting any and didn't get any. She didn't care. Ginny did, though, Ginny had a bad day.

Apparently she was trying to send Harry a valentine. And it sang. Lucie and Ginny were walking down the hallway when the dwarf sort of pinned Harry down, Harry's bag exploded and the dwarf began to sing. Lucie couldn't stop laughing. Harry looked ridiculous and completely embarrassed which made it funnier. Ginny looked mortified as well. Then terrified.

"Ginny, what's wrong? It's just a valentine…" Lucie frowned but Ginny didn't respond, she just stared, horrified, at Harry and his stuff strewn all around him. Ginny began to shake and Lucie was really getting scared, she didn't understand what was going on.

Ginny turned and ran off. Lucie chased after her as Draco Malfoy shouted something Lucie didn't catch. So, on the whole, Valentine's Day was not a success.

* * *

"How long has been since there was an attack?" Haley asked one day in early March.

"Not since before Christmas break." Will told her, grinning. "Looks like the Heir of Slytherin's gone for good."

"But that can't be possible." Charlotte told them all. "The Heir of Slytherin is not sitting in some corner terrified of Lockhart and surely didn't lose his nerve or decide it wasn't worth it. There's something thwarting them but no one knows what."

"So you're saying the attacks will start again?" Haley frowned.

"Probably." Charlotte nodded. "Maybe not though. But Dumbledore will find out who did it." Ginny made a weird noise and hurried off down the hallway towards Gryffindor Tower without a word of explanation.

"Ginny's a lot weirder than I thought she was at the beginning of the year." Emma said, frowning down at Ginny's quickly retreating figure.

"She's just scared." Lucie snapped. "You should be too."

"Why is she so scared though? She's a pureblood, she hasn't go anything to worry about." Emma said.

"She's worried about other people, she was horrified when Filch's cat was Petrified and everybody hates Mrs. Norris. " Lucie glared at Emma. "This is really serious, you know."

"It _was_ really serious." Emma told her. "But there hasn't been an attack in months. If the attacker is going to keep on attacking people, why is he having a nice little break then?"

"I don't know," Lucie huffed. "But you shouldn't stop worrying until he's been caught." She stalked into Transfiguration, sitting alone at her desk because Ginny had not returned yet.

* * *

As the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff match approached, everyone was very excited. There hadn't been any attacks and Quidditch was coming up. The whole school trooped happily out to the Quidditch pitch and settled down for the game. But they never got to see the game. The players had barely made it out to the field when Professor McGonagall came out onto the pitch with a megaphone and announced that all students were to return to their dormitories at once.

"What's going on now?" Will moaned as they filed back inside. "I really wanted to see Hufflepuff get smashed." A nearby Hufflepuff glared heatedly at him as they walked up the stairs.

"You don't think someone's gotten attacked, do you?" Haley asked, her eyes widening at the possibility.

"Anyone seen Ginny?" Lucie asked, realizing Ginny had not been at the match. Now that she thought about it, Ginny had not been at breakfast either.

"What's happening?" Lucie could have kissed Ginny when she heard Ginny's voice and saw Ginny hurrying to catch up with them. Ginny appeared sort of dazed.

"We're being sent back to our Houses. What's up with you?" Lucie asked.

"I... had to run to find you guys." Ginny said and began to breathe very hard. "So why do we have to go back? Wasn't there a Quidditch match today?"

"Of course there was, Ginny!" Lucie shook her head. "Do you pay attention to anything? That's why we're all here. We were out on the pitch and McGonagall told everyone to come back inside though we don't know why yet."

People were pacing up and down the Gryffindor common room and Lucie felt sure that the same thing was happening in all the other common rooms. Except maybe Slytherin. They were probably all happy that there had been another attack. Most people were pacing only partially from fear. They were all bored out of their minds. Now no one could leave their common after 6 pm anymore and they were to be escorted from class to class by teachers. Furthermore, the school was likely to close if the person behind the attacks wasn't found. McGonagall said so. Lucie was horrified at the idea that school would close. She had only been there one year. She wanted to go for seven years.

Ginny was positively freaking out because Ron , Hermione and Harry were not anywhere to be found, but she had not of course gone to look in their room so no one knew for sure.

"Did they ever say who had been attacked?" Lucie asked.

"They didn't say anything at all." Emma said, looking around the room quickly. "Anyone from Gryffindor not here?"

"Harry, Ron and Hermione!" Ginny almost shouted. "Harry and Ron were here earlier I think but they've disappeared and Hermione hasn't been here since this morning."

"You don't think she was attacked, do you?" Will asked Ginny.

"I don't know." Ginny said quickly. "Why would I know? I don't anything about it." She looked at her knees.

"We know, Ginny." Lucie shook her head at Ginny. "No one's accusing you of anything, calm down."

Lucie couldn't believe that Hermione Granger, along with a Ravenclaw prefect, had been attacked. But then at the same time, Lucie could believe it. Hermione was a Muggleborn, wasn't she? She was just right as a target for the Heir of Slytherin. Possibly the only positive thing that came out was that now people no longer suspected Harry as the culprit because Hermione was one of his best friends.

_I hope you enjoyed it! I know it's way shorter than the previous ones.. and I hope it follows well after the other. I had saved this is a really weird way and I wasn't totally sure how I'd organised this. The chapters should start getting longer. I am also trying to get through Lucie's first year quickly because next year will be when Sirius has escaped and it's gonna get fun! :) I promise._

_What do you guys want to see out of this story?_

_Love, Lily_


	7. Book Three: Chapter 1

_Hey All!_

_So as a special treat for not having updated for almost a year... i'm updating again! twice in one day. :) and it might be three times. Cause i'm just about down with the next chapter as well._

_So i've decided to do this story in the form of "books", as in i'm organising it based on the Harry Potter books and thus am now starting what I will call Book Three. I didn't lable the last one but you could say the first five chapters were Book Two. (No Book One as Lucie didn't go to Hogwarts during the first book). I promise most Books will be longer than five chapters. Actually they all will. _

_Toodles: I guess there isn't going to be an "official" (as you put it) meeting between them... They know who each other are at this point but they have no idea they have any connection. Lucie and Harry will learn about said connection later, but not until quite a while later._

_dark moon: i'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long.. :(_

_okay here we go!_

**Book Three**

Chapter 1

"Mum, who's this?" Lucie flopped a newspaper in front of her mother at breakfast one morning. She had been home from school for about a week.

"Where did you find that, Lucie?" Katy asked. She paled immensely and stared at Lucie with a fear that went beyond what Lucie would have expected.

"It's today's _Prophet._" Lucie shrugged.

"He's escaped?" Katy whispered. She looked ready to cry.

"That's what it says, 'Sirius Black escapes Azkaban!'. I didn't know it was possible to escape Azkaban."

"No one's ever escaped Azkaban." Katy seemed terrified to meet Lucie's eyes and she stared down at her hands.

"So who's Sirius Black?" Lucie asked and sat down in her chair at the table.

"He's… well, he committed some awful crimes el… some years ago and now apparently he's escaped."

"What did he do?" Lucie asked.

"He…" Her mother was clearly so upset by the atrocity of Sirius Black's crimes that she seemed almost unable to say them. "He killed quite a few Muggles, he was big with You-Know-Who."

"He supported You-Know-Who?" Lucie asked in alarm.

"Yes, he was a big supporter of You-Know-Who." Katy said shakily.

"Well what's he trying to do then?"

"What do you mean?" Katy asked sharply, frowning at Lucie

"Why's he escaped?"

"I have no idea." Katy whispered but Lucie didn't think her mother was telling the full truth.

"But he must have some… I don't know… goal, something he wants." She scanned the article. "It says that Fudge is worried he's going to try to rally Death Eaters back together and finish what You-Know-Who started." Katy turned, if it was possible, even paler.

"No, no, I'm sure he's not trying anything like that." She said quickly but Lucie had a feeling she didn't quite agree with what she was saying. "I'm sure he just wanted out of Azkaban."

"Morning," Lucie looked up to see her father standing there smiling at them, holding four year old Maddie in his arms. "My God, Kate, what's the matter?"

"Someone's escaped Azkaban, it's the wizard prison and no one's ever escaped Azkaban before and Mum seems really scared." Lucie said and James hurried over to sit next to Katy.

"I don't really understand what that means, but it is all going to be okay?" He said.

"Yes, yes, it's fine." Katy said but still she stared at her hands. "We have nothing to worry about. Why would he come here? I'm sure he's just trying to get as far away from Azkaban as he can, he probably won't stay in England, it'll be fine, nothing to worry about, nothing at all. He'll be leaving the country, I'm sure. Not a problem, everything's fine." Lucie stared at her mother. Obviously her mother was terrified of Sirius Black, but why? What would Sirius Black want with them? Lucie thought it was unlikely her mother had been anything like a Death Eater so if Sirius Black was indeed trying to rally the Death Eaters, why would he go anywhere near Katy Cupit? "I think I'll just take a little, walk, alright? James, would you please take Maddie to day care this morning for me?" James nodded and Katy smiled her thanks before practically bolting out the front door.

"Well, I'm opening the shop this morning, so I need to take Maddie now if I want to be on time, have a lovely day, Lucie."

"Bye, Dad." She grinned at him and waved goodbye to Maddie and then her father and sister left and Lucie was left standing all alone with the article about the escape of mass-murderer Sirius Black in her hands.

_He was coming to get them. Katy was sure of it. He had probably been intending to kill her and Lucie after he was done with Lily and James anyway. Katy thought the only reason she hadn't died was because Sirius had gone after Peter before coming home to kill his wife and daughter. Now he was probably coming to finish what he had started. Or maybe he just wanted Lucie. _

_Or maybe he's forgotten. They say Azkaban drives you mad, maybe he's forgotten about Lucie and Katy. Katy was praying with all her heart that was true, but deep down knew it wasn't. And if he was indeed trying to finish what he had started, Sirius would go for Katy, Lucie and Harry. And maybe Remus. _

_Katy walked faster and faster through the neighborhood, willing herself to come up with a better idea. But she didn't really believe what she had told Lucie and James, she was sure Sirius would not be trying to get out of the country as fast as he could. What if he figured out where they lived? At least if he went to London looking for them he wouldn't find them. Katy was beyond glad that she no longer knew anyone in the wizarding world because that meant there was no one who Sirius could use to get at her._

_Except one. What if he got Lucie? What he saw Lucie? Would Lucie remember him? That was something Katy found herself unwillingly being curious about. Lucie sometimes randomly said things or did things that seemed to show she remembered, somewhere in her head she remembered. She still had a strange attachment to black dogs that no one, not even Lucie herself, other than Katy understood. Katy was sure Sirius would be traveling in his animagus form, there were only two people left alive that had ever known he was an animagus and Katy knew that Sirius might think both she and Remus were dead, he would have no way of knowing._

_What if Sirius found out where she was living and came to town as a black dog and Lucie saw him? Katy knew if Lucie found a stray black dog she would bring it home and ask to at least clean it up and likely to keep it. Katy was sure she would recognize Sirius, dog or human, the moment she saw him and it would not go over well with Lucie if Katy cursed the dog Lucie had brought home._

_But maybe it was just Harry. Katy told herself that over and over. Maybe he just wants Harry. But still, that wasn't by any means okay with Katy, even though she hadn't seen him properly since he was one year old, he was still James and Lily's son. Whoever Sirius was after, Katy hated him double for escaping Azkaban. He was supposed to rot there until he died. And even then, he would have hardly repaid his debt for the crimes he committed._

_Katy had walked back in front of her house. She could see in the living room window, Lucie was sitting there reading the newspaper, but she wasn't looking at the part about Sirius, her murderer father, that part was being displayed out the window for Katy to see, to see his face, so different than how Katy remembered it, staring out at her. Part of Katy thought momentarily of going inside and telling Lucie that by holding the newspaper up like that, she was displaying magic to the outside Muggle world, but Katy turned and walked off again._

_Katy wondered if he really looked like that. She would certainly have never guessed he could ever look like that. His eyes had looked dead, his hair was matted and down to his elbows. But even with that picture blaring into her mind, if Katy closed her eyes, she could still see him as she had known him. She could see him as the only way she would let herself remember him: a Hogwarts student. She couldn't picture him as Lucie's father because that was too painful, but she could picture him as a student because then she could pretend that he was just one of many, one of many who had all gone their separate ways after school finished._

_Katy then turned around and ran home as fast as she could, she wouldn't let Lucie out of her sight all summer. She was _not_ going to lose Lucie to Sirius Black. The Black family would not take her daughter, the first person she had ever loved would not kill Lucie. Her husband, her friend, her Sirius was not going to touch Lucie. But Lucie wasn't at home when Katy got there. There was a messy note on the kitchen table on which Lucie had written that she had walked into town and would be back in the evening. Katy went into the living room, there he was, his terrible face, staring up at her from on the couch where Lucie had carelessly, unknowingly, innocently left the _Daily Prophet.

That evening Lucie came home before either James or Maddie had returned. She didn't hear anything but that meant her mother was probably reading in the living room. The door was open and Lucie went inside. Katy was sitting on the couch with the _Daily Prophet_ open before her, staring at the picture of Sirius Black, silent tears pouring down her face. She didn't notice Lucie and Lucie decided she wouldn't interrupt. She tiptoed backwards out of the living room and went upstairs, trying to make sense of the day.

* * *

"You can't keep me in here like a prisoner all summer!" Lucie yelled. Every time Lucie asked for permission to go do something with her friends from elementary school, Katy had made up some excuse not to let her go. Maddie needed to be watched, or Katy needed help sorting through the things in the basement, or Lucie had to look though her room for old things she wanted to get rid of.

"It's not safe out there!" Katy cried passionately back. Lucie glared at her mother.

"We're the only family in this whole town that's magical. Why would Sirius Black come here? He's not coming here, Mum. I'm not in danger!"

"Everyone, everywhere is until he's found." Katy snapped and the her face softened. "I'm sorry, sweetie. I don't mean to yell at you. But I'm worried half to death. Lucie if I could I would be making you sleep in my bedroom. You don't understand how serious this situation is. you don't know what it was like before…before Black went to Azkaban." Katy's body was shaking as she spoke and Lucie was starting to get seriously scared.

"Why are you so scared, Mum? Did you know him? Did you do something to him? Is there any reason he would come here? Does he have anything to do with why you left the Wizarding World?" Lucie was getting very suspicious.

"No, of course not." Katy frowned at Lucie. "I just remember what it was like before You-Know-Who vanished. I remember the horrors that were on the news every day. And now that someone like… Black… is free again, I'm worried it's going to start up again."

Lucie glared one more time at Katy and stalked from the room.

Katy stood rooted to the spot. How did Lucie know to ask those questions? Kate could only hope her daughter had not seen any odd reaction to her questions. Katy had wanted to shrink to nothing and die when Lucie asked her if Sirius had anything to do with leaving the Wizarding World. But Katy was determined not to let Lucie know of any connection between her and Sirius. The last thing in the world Katy wanted was for Lucie to have to live with the knowledge that Sirius Black was her father. Especially now that he had escaped.

* * *

"Look, Mum, Ginny's in the _Prophet!_" Lucie shouted, waving the _Daily Prophet_ in front of Katy's face. "Ginny got to go to Egypt with her family. Isn't that cool?" Lucie grinned. She was trying to have conversations with her mother about things other than Sirius Black in the hopes of being allowed to leave the house at least once before summer was over.

"Wow," Katy smiled back. "That is so cool." She took the paper from Lucie and read thorugh the article and scanned the picture.

"Ew, Scabbers." Lucie wrinkled her nose when she saw the rat on Ron's shoulder. She hated rats, she was terrified of them, something she had inherited from her mother. Katy was staring at the rat with an odd look on her face but then she shook her head and shook the paper a little.

"Rats are kind of gross." She smiled at Lucie. "I don't know why anyone would want to have one, do you?"

"Nope." Lucie laughed.

That night Katy lay in bed unable to sleep thinking about that newspaper. She wouldn't have in Lucie had pointed it out but all she could think of was Peter. That poor little boy who followed Sirius and James around and then paid for it with his life. Rats didn't really scare Katy anymore, they just reminded her of Peter but it was easier to pretend her emotional reaction to them was fear; it didn't require an explanation.

_Thoughts? I hope you guys liked it! I'm having so much fun getting back into this. But you guys should know, that I probably won't be able to do much during the month of August, but once September rolls around i'll have more time and can get back to updating. I might try and get a lot done this week before I get busy again. :)_

_Love, Lily_

_Please Review!_


	8. Book Three: Chapter 2

_Hey there darlins! here's the next update, and (as promised) it's longer! :)_

_gcant2: i'm glad you were happy to see this email! And i'm so pleased you think it's so good! :)_

_HarryPotterResidentEvilFanJnL: I'm so sorry to hear you broke your ankle! That sucks major! :( But i'm glad you're looking forward to reading this again. Also, as I said, Harry and Lucie haven't had any big meeting because it would not mean anything. They haven't been officially introduced either, but don't worry, all in good time. And Katy will also be telling Lucie all in good time. I'm sorry to hear you're getting fed up with her but I understand. She is getting harder to write because i can hardly remember all the various things she had told people as excuses and i would much, much, much rather for her to be back in the magical world 100% where she belongs. and with who she belongs with... :) _

_To Everyone (including HarryPOtterResidentEvilFanJnL): Sorry the end was so confusing for the last book... I just had to get it finished and over with because it was so weird having left off part way through that i had disoriented myself. :P Book Three will make more sense._

_Here we go!_

_Oh! I also borrowed a few thigns from JKR this time... like her description of the Dementors (i don't think i could do them justice). And Dumbledore's speech. But, as before, when something is directly out of the books, i have it in bold so you know it isn't mine. No copyright infringement intended! _

Chapter 2

Finally it was time for school to start. Lucie could not have been more excited to get away from her house and her mother. She knew that really her mum had her best interests in mind, but really, it was getting a little too hard to bear. Lucie had probably left her house a grand total of five times over the course of the summer, three of which were with her mother.

Lucie saw Ginny come through the barrier to Platform 9 ¾ with her brother Percy. Ginny shared a grin with Harry and then noticed Lucie and waved at her. Lucie's family was already gone, she had gotten on the train immediately after arrival because, as cruel as it was, she was ready for them to not to be there, hovering and worrying about everything.

"Ginny!" Lucie hurried over to her friend and the two of them rushed onto the train and sat down in the compartment with Emma, Haley, Charlotte and Maggie.

Everyone wished Lucie a happy birthday and they all gave her a present. Every one of them had gotten her sweets of some sort but Lucie didn't mind. The six of them spent most of the train ride eating candy and discussing Sirius Black.

"You reckon he's really going to try and bring back You-Know-Who?" Maggie asked, gulping.

"My mum went bonkers because of him." Lucie said. "She wouldn't let me out of the house and I am not exaggerating." The others raised their eyebrows and expressed shock. "It was terrible."

* * *

The train began to slow down and Charlotte looked at her watch.

"There's no way we're here." She frowned as the others began standing up to get their trunks down.

"What do you mean? It's nighttime and the train is stopping. We're clearly here." Lucie said and continued trying to get her trunk.

Suddenly the train jolted to a stop and Lucie's trunk, came crashing down with a thud. Just as Lucie was grumbling and bending to pick it up, the lights went out.

"Um, what's going on?" Lucie asked the dark compartment.

"No idea…" Emma answered, her voice trembling a little.

"I'm going to find Ron." Ginny said hastily and felt her way toward the door and hurried out.

"Wow, you could not pay me enough to get me to leave this compartment right now." Maggie stated.

"Is it just me, or does it seem like there are shapes moving out there?" Squeaked Haley from the window. They all pressed up against the window. It was pitch black but Lucie did have to admit there were something like moving shadows out there. It was chilling. Lucie grabbed the hands of whoever was near her, she had no idea and shut her eyes tight.

Then there was a creak at the door. Lucie opened her eyes and almost screamed. There was the most terrible thing she had ever seen. **Standing in the doorway… was a cloaked figure that towered to the ceiling. Its face was completely hidden beneath its hood. … There was a hand protruding from the cloak and it was glistening, grayish, slimly-looking, and scabbed, like something dead that had decayed in winter.**

**And then the thing beneath the hood, whatever it was, drew a long, slow, rattling breath, as though it were trying to suck something more than air from its surroundings. **The compartment was filled with an extreme cold like Lucie had never felt before. Lucie felt like she had never felt any happiness in the world and never again would. The creature breathed in again and Lucie felt herself involuntarily shudder and she began to feel blacker and colder and sadder. But then the thing left their compartment and warmth began to fill the space again. Lucie began to breathe normally and feel normal, though she could still feel the creature's presence in the room.

"What was that?" Haley stammered.

"A Dementor." Charlotte answered at once, though she sounded rather shaken as well. "They guard Azkaban prison. I think they're searching for Black. But why on the Hogwarts Express?"

After what seemed like years but was probably no more than a few minutes, the lights came flickering back on and the train began to move. Lucie saw that she was still holding tightly onto Emma and Maggie's hands. Everyone was pale and shaking.

* * *

No one could wait to get off the train when they arrived at Hogsmeade Station. Lucie could hear Hagrid calling to the first years to follow him to the boats. Lucie hurried to find Ginny and got into the carriages that the rest of the school rode in to get to school. They didn't appear to have anything driving them but they moved all the same. Lucie and Ginny discussed the Dementors all the way to the school. They both noticed two more Dementors at the gates to Hogwarts. Lucie gulped. Why did there have to be Dementors at Hogwarts?

Lucie didn't pay much attention to the Sorting. It wasn't like she knew anyone. She looked up from chatting with Ginny when Dumbledore got up to make his start of term speech.

"**Welcome!" said Dumbledore, the candlelight shimmering on his beard. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you and all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by our excellent feast…"**

**Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued, "As you will all be aware after their seach of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host to some of the Dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business."**

…

"**They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds," Dumbledore continued, "and while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody is to leave school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises – or even Invisibility Cloaks," he added blandly, … "It is not in the nature a Dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no readon to harm you. I look to the prefects, and to our new Head Boy and girl to make sure that no students runs afould of the Dementors." He said.**

…

"**On a happier note," he continued, "I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year.**

"**First, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."**

…

"**As to our second new appointment," Dumbledore continued as the lukewarm applause for Professor Lupin died away. "Well, I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs. However, I am delighted to say that his place will be filled by none other than Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching job in addition to his grounds keeping duties."**

_(Authors Note: For those of you who don't know and are therefore confused, ... is what you put in when you are not including a portion of the work you are quoting. I have ... where there was some interjection from Harry that I am not using)_

After the applause, which was much more enthusiastic than for Professor Lupin, Dumbledore summoned the feast and they began to eat.

"That Lupin fellow looks a little raggedy." Lucie commented to Ginny as they ate.

"I saw him on the train. He was in the compartment with Ron, Harry and Hermione. He made the Dementor go away and he made Harry eat some chocolate." Ginny said. "He knows his stuff. I reckon he'll be good."

"Good, we need someone who isn't rubbish. I don't think we learned anything last year." Lucie said.

Lucie struck up a conversation about the Dementors with Tommy and Will as they walked back to Gryffindor Tower. Lucie hadn't talked to anyone all summer and she had forgotten how much fun it was hanging out with Will and Tommy.

"What have we got first tomorrow?" Emma asked when they were in the common room.

"Ugh, no idea." Ginny shrugged.

"Don't already mention classes, Emma." Lucie said with a frown. "I'd prefer not to think about it. Besides, we don't know. We won't get out schedules until tomorrow morning."

* * *

The next morning came far too fast for Lucie's liking. They all stumbled sleepily down to the Great Hall for breakfast and McGonagall came by to pass out the schedules. The Slytherins were giving Harry a hard time for apparently passing out because of the Dementors. Lucie thought that was perhaps a bit of an overreaction but maybe the Dementor had stayed in his compartment longer or been scarier or maybe there were two of them. Lucie didn't spend much time worrying about it because she was too busy eating breakfast and trying not to think about going to class soon.

"Defense first." Emma said when they got their schedules. "So, we'll get to have the new teacher first."

After they finished breakfast, all ten Gryffindor second years gathered their things and followed the second year Hufflepuffs to the DADA classroom.

The door opened and the second years filed in and sat down at the desks in the room. It looked very different than it had the previous year. It was no longer covered in pictures of Gilderoy Lockhart.

"Good morning," Professor Lupin greeted the class. Lucie was surprised by his up close appearance, he didn't look _too_ old, but his hair was graying and his face was scarred. He began to take the register. Lucie knew she would be third; she was always the third one in the class lists, after Haley Allen and Colin Creevey. However after he called Colin's name, Professor Lupin stared at the paper in obvious disbelief. Lucie was confused. Was it possible her name was misspelled in a strange way? His eyes roved the room and landed on her almost immediately, widening momentarily and then he quickly looked away from her. She was surprised, how did he already know which person's name was in front of him on the paper? "Lucie… Lucie Cu… Cupit." If he already knew which one she was, why did he falter over her name? Lucie glanced at Ginny who looked just as confused as Lucie felt. Glancing around the room she saw that everyone seemed to have found it all as odd as it seemed to Lucie. She nodded slowly to Professor Lupin who was still gaping at her.

"Maybe cause you're a Cupit?" Ginny whispered to her. "Some people are… oh I don't know, that doesn't make sense at all." Ginny frowned. Lucie had no better explanation.

"Right, well, let's get started." Professor Lupin said, smiling around at the class but Lucie noticed her very purposefully did not make eye contact with her. Lucie was very confused. "It doesn't make any difference to me and it will not put you at any sort of advantage in my class, but can those of you who were raised in magical families put your hands up so I have an idea of how many of you are likely to be familiar with much of what we learn this year?"

Lucie, Colin, Haley and Maggie kept their hands down along with three Hufflepuffs. Lucie saw Professor Lupin frown at her with a confused look on his face.

"Well that probably is because you're a Cupit. Who ever heard a Muggleborn Cupit?" Ginny whispered.

"I'm not Muggleborn." Lucie whispered back. "My mum just didn't use magic, remember?" Ginny shrugged.

"That's a lot like being Muggleborn. You were raised a Muggle."

Lucie was distinctly uncomfortable throughout the rest of the lesson as she could feel Professor Lupin's inquisitive eyes on her.

She wrote her mother a letter about her first day that night.

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_I made it last night! The feast was great!_

_We had our first classes today, they were mostly the same but Hagrid teaches Care of Magical Creatures now and we have a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, cause Lockhart obviously can't teach anymore. He's called Professor Lupin and he acted all funny when he got to my name on the roll. First he just stared at it like he'd never seen it before (which I suppose is true) and then he looked up and looked directly at me before I told him who I was or anything. He knew exactly who I was and then he still had trouble saying my name. He was stuttering all over it, weird, huh? And then he was looking at me a lot during the rest of the class period which was also kind of weird. Any ideas why?_

_Hogwarts is a bit creepy this year, though, cause it's full of Dementors. Not the school itself, the grounds, and all the doors and everything, I don't know why though, what would Sirius Black want to try to come to Hogwarts for?_

_Lots of love to you both and Maddie,_  
_Lucie_

Lucie mailed her letter the next day with the morning post and was surprised to get a letter back the very next morning.

_Dear Lucie,_

_Are you sure, absolutely positive that your teacher is called Lupin? Do you know anything else about him? You don't happen to know his first name do you?_

_Dad is asking me why I want to know how much you know about Professor Lupin and it's just that his name reminds me of someone I'd heard of a long, long time ago and I was wondering if it was possibly the same person, but don't say anything to him, he won't remember me at all, it's not like I knew him well. We barely knew who each other were and I haven't seen him or talked to him in ages, years, more than years, it's been a long, long, long, long time so don't bother yourself with any of this. You don't even have to try to find out his name. In fact, don't try, it's a waste of time._

_I'm glad to hear that there is nothing awfully new at Hogwarts,_

_Hogwarts has Dementors? Oh, Lucie, that's awful! I don't think there's anything at Hogwarts that could be of any remote interest to Sirius Black whatsoever. You're right. What would he want to go there for? There isn't anything or anyone at all he'd be looking for. He's probably going to get out of the country if he can. You shouldn't worry at all._

_Say hello to all your friends for me and tell Ginny it was lovely meeting her and that I hope she had a fantastic time in Egypt; it was fun to see her in the Prophet._

_Love from Dad, Maddie and I_  
_Mum_

Lucie and Ginny walked to Defense Against the Dark Arts again the morning after Lucie read her letter from her mum.

"Maybe it'll be normal today." Ginny suggested.

"Nah, he was watching me at breakfast this morning, I saw him." Lucie said. She was beginning to think there was a real reason this man would be staring at her. Her mother's letter had helped confirmed that suspicion. Katy had wanted to know his first name and then ambitiously claimed there was no reason in the world. Lucie had no idea what the reason could possibly have been, but she had a feeling it wasn't because of her last name that Professor Lupin had acted oddly towards her.

That day during class they each had to write one page summarizing the reading they had done the previous evening. Lucie finished with plenty of time left to go, but stayed seated, waiting for class to end. As the rest of the students filed out of the room, Lucie approached Professor Lupin's desk.

"Excuse me, Professor," She began and he looked up from the textbook which he was leafing through. His eyes widened momentarily when he saw who was in front of him and a look of what Lucie would have called, if she hadn't known better, intense pain, passed through his eyes. "I'm finished." She said, unnecessarily and held up her parchment. He held out his hands for it and she handed it to him. She turned but had hardly gone more than a few steps when there was a loud thump from behind her. She turned to see that Professor Lupin had apparently not closed his fingers around her parchment and the parchment and the book and some various other parchments he had been holding had fallen to the floor.

"Do you need help picking them up, Professor?" Lucie asked, hurrying back to the desk and grabbing some of the loose papers.

"That won't be necessary, Lucie." Lupin said, his face darkening a little as he said her name. He took the parchments out of her hand and turned back to his desk.

"Professor?" Lucie asked.

"Yes, Lucie?" Lupin responded. He kept his eyes determinedly focused on his desk.

"Nevermind, I forgot what I wanted to say." Lucie sighed and left the classroom, trying to figure out what had just happened. Her mother's letter and her conversation, if you could call it that, with Professor Lupin all but proved her theory that they had known each other. But Lupin seemed so pained by Lucie and her mother had seemed so against Lucie investigating who Lupin really was, maybe they had known each other at school and really, really, really not liked each other.

* * *

By the end of the first week of school, Lucie was feeling very unsure about her theory of mutual dislike although she was convinced that Professor Lupin _had_ known her mother. He watched Lucie a lot at meals and during class but after a few days, the pain was often replaced by a smile, as if by looking at her he could remember something good. Lucie had a feeling it _was _just because of her last name that he connected her to her mother because she and her mother did not look that much alike. Her blonde curls made her look remarkably different than her mother's long black ringlets. Lucie always wondered where she had gotten her blonde hair. She supposed her father must have been blonde.

_Reviews? Please? :)_

_I'm going to and work on the next chapter now so please please review and tell me what you think and what you want! i want to hear from you! :)_

_Love, Lily_


	9. Book Three: Chapter 3

_A real chapter! Yay! :)_

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed._

_HarryPotterResidentEvilFanJnL: Lupin is one of my favorite characters too! i really hope i do him justice.. I love him! Also, she will. Don't worry. :) Thank you for the support (though ambivalent :P) response to my question, what you said definitely factored in!_

_Hoydronning: Yay! Thanks so much!_

_.Alice: Awesome, good to hear! thanks for responding!_

_Kris 77: that's a good suggestion! I'm pretty sure the thing that i have decided on will go down slightly differently but I really appreciate you giving me a good idea! I almost used exactly it._

_To everyone: Well, i've figured out how it's going down (drama drama drama). This chapter isn't so full of drama but it will very very soon be... i hope you guys don't think it's too much. drama is just the most fun to write! yay!_

_Okay, see you at the end of the chapter!_

_p.s. there are a few more quotes taken directly from the book, as always, they are in bold._

Chapter 3

"I can't believe we aren't allowed to go to Hogsmeade." Lucie huffed, watching the third years and above line up excitedly to go to the town of Hogsmeade.

"We can go next year." Ginny said brightly.

"How come Ron and Hermione are there but not Harry?" Lucie asked, you hardly ever saw any of them without seeing all three of them.

"I don't know." Ginny said, blushing as she always did when talk turned to Harry. "Maybe he's behind them and we can't see them.

"Come on, let's go. This is just boring to watch." Lucie dragged Ginny back to the Gryffindor common room. Will and Tommy were playing chess together and Will's Knight was currently beating up one of Tommy's pieces, though it was so destroyed already that Lucie had no idea which piece it was.

Emma and Haley were looking something up quite diligently in a book, which surprised Lucie, they usually weren't the ones reading. Charlotte and Maggie were sitting on a couch, chatting and laughing which is what Emma and Haley usually did. Colin was sitting on a different couch looking bored. Lucie and Ginny went and sat by him but the portrait hole opened again immediately after they sat down and Harry came in.

"Guess we know where Harry is. We still don't know why he isn't in Hogsmeade though…" Lucie said to Ginny who blushed some more. Colin leapt out of his seat at the sight of Harry and hurried over to him.

"**Harry! Harry! Hi, Harry!" **

…

"**Aren't you going to Hogsmeade, Harry? Why not? Hey —" Colin looked eagerly around at his friends — "you can come and sit with us, if you like, Harry!" **

"**Er — no, thanks, Colin," said Harry, … . "I — I've got to go to the library, got to get some work done."**

Harry turned and went back out the portrait hole towards the library.

"Wait to play it cool, Colin." Will smirked. "You've probably terrified him cause you're so excited to see him."

The first years chatted together for a while before Lucie got bored and left to wander around the school. She saw Harry coming out of the DADA classroom. Lucie didn't know why Harry would be chatting with Professor Lupin.

Then she thought of something she hadn't before. Hadn't her mother said something to Dumbledore before school started last year about how Harry's father and her own father used to joke that they would get married? Lucie hadn't remembered that part until just that moment. And between Katy's and Professor Lupin's strange reactions to Professor Lupin and Lucie respectively, Lucie was beginning to wonder if Harry knew more about Professor Lupin. Lucie was going to go and say something to Harry but he was already far down the hall. Besides, Lucie thought to herself, he probably doesn't know who I am any more than his best friend's little sister's best friend. Lucie did, however, walk over to the open door of the DADA room.

Professor Lupin was working quietly at his desk. There was a smoking goblet on the table next to him. Lucie was a little worried about what might have been in there and if Professor Lupin had drank it. Lupin must have sensed that she was there because he looked up at her.

"Is there something I can help you with, Lucie?" He asked, smiling at her in the most normal way she had ever seen him look at her.

"Oh, well… not really. I just…oh, nothing." Lucie said and turned to go.

"Lucie?" He called after her. "Is everything alright?" Lucie turned around and was surprised by how obviously concerned he appeared to be.

"Why are you so weird to me?" Lucie blurted out before covering her mouth in horror. That was not something you could say to a teacher. "I'm sorry, Sir, I didn't mean that." She turned bright scarlet with embarrassment and turned to leave again.

"Lucie, wait, come back." Lupin called, standing up from his desk. "I'm sorry if it's seemed so weird to you."

"It is weird." Lucie said flatly. She knew it was sort of rude, but she also felt like she deserved an explanation and maybe one was coming. "You're different to me than everyone else. There is only one other teacher that is different to me than everyone else and that's Snape. But he's different cause he hates more than he does everyone else -"

"Yes, well, you, Harry and I." Lupin murmured.

" And I have no idea why. I never did anything to him." Lucie paused. "Did you just say 'you, Harry and I'?" She frowned, confused.

"Professor Snape feels a certain amount of dislike for myself, Harry Potter and you."

"Really? Why?"

"That's a very long story." Lupin said slowly.

"Did you know my mum?" Lucie asked, sensing Lupin wasn't about to tell the long story.

"What has she told you about me?" Lupin asked curiously.

"So you did know her?"

"Did she tell you that?"

"No, she hasn't told me anything about you. She just asked a lot of weird questions in a letter after I mentioned your name as my new teacher. And you're always staring at me weirdly. I can put two and two together." Lucie said defiantly.

"You're just like her, you know that?"

"No I don't." Lucie frowned. "Because I don't know anyone who knew her when she was young. And she's very different from me now."

"She is?" Lupin frowned. "What's she like?"

"Boring." Lucie frowned. "She won't tell me anything."

"About?"

"Everything. She won't tell me about her time at Hogwarts, she won't tell me about her friends and she won't tell me about my dad even though I know there is a lot to tell there because I heard her talking to Dumbledore about it." Lucie said, glaring at Lupin. "Sorry," she added quickly. "I shouldn't be taking this out on you."

"She might have a good reason for those things." Lupin said softly.

"Like what?" Lucie snorted. "To protect me?"

"Is that what she told you?" Lupin asked.

"Yeah, she's keeping her entire life a secret for my protection. How is that protecting me?"

"I think you just have to take her word for now."

"I'm tired of just taking her word for things. I'm tired of her dodging every question I ask. And I know that you can answer some of them. You knew her."

"I did know her." Lupin nodded gravely. "But if she doesn't want you to know some things, I'm not going to tell you them either. I'm going to respect her wishes, she has good reasons, I promise you. Everyone has secrets that are meant to be kept. Some things you just can't tell, no matter how much you think it might help." Lucie had the distinct feeling Lupin's last comment was not meant for her because he was looking off above her head and talking apparently to himself.

"If you were in her position, would you be keeping everything from me as well?" Lucie asked. Lupin didn't answer for a long time.

"Maybe not everything. There's one thing I would tell you." He said softly.

"Then tell me!" Lucie cried. "It's not like it's going to kill me!"

"I'm sorry Lucie." Lupin said. "But if Katy doesn't want you to know, I'm going to tell you."

"Fine." Lucie turned and stomped out of the classroom, determined to go back to her dorm and write her mother a letter.

_Mum,_

_I just had a chat with Professor Lupin. You need to tell me stuff.  
I know you knew him. He didn't tell me anything though but you  
have to. I need to know this stuff. And don't say it won't impact  
me because it will. Otherwise you'd have told me._

_Okay well know now I'm done cause I'm just feeling angry and  
have nothing more to say._

_Lucie_

_P.S. Lupin called you "Katy" so I know he knew you well._

Lucie mailed her letter off that day and then joined her friends in the Great Hall for the feast. She found herself watching Harry a lot during dinner. What Lupin had said had made her sure her mum knew both Lupin and Harry's parents.

Lucie noticed Harry watching both Snape and Lupin a lot and as she watched, she realized, like she thought Harry must be realizing, that Snape was watching Lupin, with the usually look of utter loathing, more often than he should be. It wasn't natural.

* * *

"What's going on?" Emma asked, craning her neck to get a better view over the rest of the Gryffindors all being held up at the entrance to Gryffindor Tower.

"Can you see anything?" Haley asked Emma.

"No." Emma said darkly.

"Quick, Ginny, put me on your shoulders." Lucie said grinning.

"Are you mad?" Ginny giggled. "We'd topple over and fall down the stairs."

"Are you calling me fat?" Lucie laughed. "Come on." She grabbed hold of Ginny's hand and pushed her way through the crowd. Percy was pushing his way through the crows and Lucie went right behind him, using his wake as a path.

" "**Let me through, please," came Percy's voice, and he came bustling importantly through the crowd. "What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password — excuse me, I'm Head Boy —"**

**And then a silence fell over the crowd, from the front first, so that a chill seemed to spread down the corridor. They heard Percy say, in a suddenly sharp voice, "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick."**

**People's heads turned; those at the back were standing on tiptoe.**

"**What's going on?" said Ginny, who had just arrived.**

**A moment later, Professor Dumbledore was there, sweeping toward the portrait; the Gryffindors squeezed together to let him through, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione moved closer to see what the trouble was.**

"**Oh, my —" Hermione grabbed Harry's arm.**

**The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas littered the floor; great chunks of it had been torn away completely. Dumbledore took one quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his eyes somber, to see Professors McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape hurrying toward him.**

"**We need to find her," said Dumbledore. "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr. Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady."**

"**You'll be lucky!" said a cackling voice.**

**It was Peeves the Poltergeist, bobbing over the crowd and looking delighted, as he always did, at the sight of wreckage or worry.**

"**What do you mean, Peeves?" said Dumbledore calmly, and Peeves's grin faded a little. He didn't dare taunt Dumbledore. Instead he adopted an oily voice that was no better than his cackle. "Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful," he said happily. "Poor thing." he added unconvincingly. **

"**Did she say who did it?" said Dumbledore quietly.**

"**Oh yes, Professorhead," said Peeves, with the air of one cradling a large bombshell in his arms. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see." Peeves flipped over and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."**

"Sirius Black tried to get into Gryffindor?" Lucie squeaked. Ginny was pale white. "Why… why would he want to do that?"

"What do we do now?" Ginny asked. "I don't want to go in there."

Dumbledore ordered all of Gryffindor House into the Great Hall where sleeping bags for every student were summoned. All anyone could talk about was how Sirius Black could have gotten in the castle.

"I bet he flew." Colin said resolutely.

"No chance," Will scoffed. "The Dementors would have seen him. He had to Apparate."

"What if he had a disguise?"

"Dumbledore said Dementors would not be fooled by any disguises." Charlotte told Emma who shrugged.

"It doesn't matter how he got in," said Emma. "What matters is that he didn't get into Gryffindor Tower."

"Are you kidding?" Lucie asked Emma, appalled. "Of course it matters how he got in! If Dumbledore knows how Black got in, then he can make sure Black doesn't get in again. Also they can intercept Black before he gets out of the castle again."

"I'm sure he's out of the castle by now. After destroying the Fat Lady he probably wasted no time getting out of here as fast as he could." Tommy said.

"**The lights are going out now!" Percy shouted. "I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking!" **

Everyone got into their sleeping bags. Ginny and Lucie were next to each other and whispered together quietly for a few minutes before going to sleep.

* * *

Lucie cornered Lupin after her next class with something that had been on her mind a lot lately.

"You don't have to tell me the whole story but why does Snape hate you, me and Harry?"

"We all knew each other." Lupin said quietly.

"Who knew who?" Lucie raised her eyebrows.

"Snape, your mother, Harry's…father and I." Lupin said. "And I really have to go now Lucie, I'm sorry. I'm late for a staff meeting." He hurried past her and down the hall. Lucie wasn't sure what to think. This did at least confirm that her mum had known Harry's dad but it didn't help much more than that.

Lucie didn't realize she had been standing in the DADA classroom for almost ten minutes until a voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Lucie," Professor Dumbledore was standing in the doorway looking at her thoughtfully. "I thought you might still be here."

"What do you mean?" Lucie asked, confused. She was feeling confused a lot these days.

"I've been hearing you've had quite a few questions lately. " Dumbledore said and sat down at a chair. Lucie beamed at him. Maybe he was here to answer her questions. "Questions that haven't been answered, am I right?"

"Absolutely." Lucie sat down in a chair near him.

"I received a letter from your mother this morning." Dumbledore said.

"What?" Lucie frowned.

"She mentioned a letter you wrote her."

"She hasn't written me back about it." Lucie scowled.

"She will." Dumbledore said softly. "You should know how much of a struggle this is for her. Although you may not believe me, if she could, she would tell you everything."

"Do you know everything, Sir?" Lucie asked curiously.

"Bits and pieces." Dumbledore smiled at her. Lucie found herself not quite believing that the headmaster only knew bits and pieces. Lucie also didn't know how to approach a conversation with Dumbledore. She had never spoken to him since the day he came to her house over a year ago and even then she had never had a private conversation with him.

"Like what?" Lucie asked after a long pause.

"You know your mother is only doing what she thinks is best for you, don't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, she's protecting me, I know. That's what she and Professor Lupin told me."

"You don't seem to believe it." Dumbledore said.

"No, I don't." Lucie shrugged. "What could be so terrible?"

"There are a lot of terrible things in this world." Dumbledore sighed. "But a lot of wonderful things as well." He stood and smiled at Lucie before departing.

Lucie had been very much expecting to come out of that exchange with some information. Disappointed, she returned to the common room to tell Ginny what Lupin and Dumbledore said.

"So your mum knew Harry's dad?" Ginny asked, looking at Lucie eagerly. "That means you guys are like… you should know each other!"

"Yeah… if only his parents hadn't died." Lucie looked over at Harry who was deep in discussion with Ron and Hermione. "He doesn't know anything about me though."

"You could go and ask him."

"Ask him what…?"

"Ask him if he knows anything about your parents." Ginny said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"He won't, you told me yourself the Muggles he lives with hate magic. There's no way he knows anything about some friend of his dad's from school. And I'm not sure if my mum and James Potter were all that close."

"Why not?"

"All Lupin said was that they knew each other. That doesn't really mean anything." Lucie shrugged. "And anyway, we have a huge essay for McGonagall we should get started on."

_Ta da! Haha, what did you guys think? What do you think of Lucie's discussions with Remus? _

_Get ready for some major drama in the next chapter!_

_Review please please oh please! :)_

_Love, Lily_


	10. Book Three: Chapter 4

_Hey there! So I don't really have much to say right now... except hold on to your hats cause here comes the drama. :)_

_... _

Chapter 4

_Dear Ginny,_

_Do you think your mum would adopt me? My parents  
are fighting all the time now. If Sirius Black isn't caught  
soon, I think my mum is likely to go insane. Or my  
parents will kill each other._

_I hope you're having a happy Christmas! Christmas  
morning was the most awkward day of my life.  
Everyone was trying to pretend that they were all  
happy and cheerful. Even Maddie noticed and she's  
only four._

_Tell everyone in your family Happy Christmas and  
write back soon so I have an excuse to not hang  
out with my family!_

_Love,_

_Lucie_

Lucie sent her letter to Ginny off with Boris and went downstairs. Katy, James and Maddie were all in the living room together and it was unbelievably tense. Lucie started to turn around to go back upstairs but Katy saw her.

"Lucie!" Katy called, obviously relieved to have a distraction. "What have you been up to today?"

"I wrote a letter to Ginny." Lucie replied, not coming into the room but staying in the doorway to let her mother know she didn't plan on staying for long.

"Let's go for a walk." Katy said and stood up and walked by Lucie into the hallway and up the stairs. Lucie sighed and followed.

"It's like minus 100 out there, Mum."

"Fresh air is good for you. Go get your coat, Lucie."

Lucie groaned but went to her room to get her jacket and hat.

"I wanted to say that I'm sorry," began Katy, "I know this holiday has been difficult for everyone."

"Difficult?" Lucie scoffed, "Are you kidding? Have you and Dad said more than two words to each other the whole time? How long have you guys been like this?"

"Your father has a hard time dealing with his lack of understanding of the magical world and the situation with Sirius Black." Katy said bitterly and Lucie looked at the ground. She had not told her mother that Sirius Black had broken into the castle because she knew her mother would not let her go back to school if she knew about it.

"Please tell me something new, Mum." Lucie said. "You're making me more scared than I should be by refusing to tell me anything. You act like we have something to hide, something to worry about. Is Sirius Black after you or something?" Lucie asked, staring at her mother who wouldn't meet her eyes.

"No, Sirius Black is not coming after me." Katy said, looking sideways towards Lucie, obviously gauging for a reaction.

"Is he coming after me or something then?" Lucie said skeptically.

"No!" Katy said quickly. "As far as I know, he is not."

"Should he be?" Lucie asked.

"No." Katy replied.

They walked on a few more blocks in silence.

"You never wrote me back." Lucie said finally. "You wrote Dumbledore after I wrote you, he said you were going to write me and you never did."

"I know," Katy began with a deep breath. "I'm sorry I didn't. But I just couldn't. And Lucie, I still can't tell you the things that you want to know. Not yet, but you have my word I will tell you."

"When?" Lucie asked, glaring up at her mother whose face was blocked by a shield of thick black curls.

"Soon." Katy sighed. "I promise Lucie, soon I will tell you all you've asked and more. But I need more time to come to terms with it myself. I know it doesn't help you now but when you learn, you will understand why it took me so long."

There was another silence. After walking in the snow for another five minutes, Katy stopped and grabbed Lucie's shoulders and turned to face her.

"You have to promise me something, Lucie. You have to promise you won't hate me, no matter what."

"Mum, you're scaring me." Lucie said, her voice was shaking and she was shivering, but only partly from the cold. "Why would I hate you?"

"Just promise me we can talk it over and you won't hate me." Katy was pleading now. "I promise to tell you if you promise not to hate me."

"Okay, I won't hate you." Lucie said and felt a tear roll down her cheek. She didn't know why she was crying, it didn't make sense. She wasn't sad but she was feeling scared. All the more scared because she didn't know what it was that she was scared of. Lucie pulled her mother close and cried, standing right in the middle of the street, in the middle of the day. Even though she was already thirteen years old, Lucie didn't care and let herself cry on her mother's shoulder. She felt tears from her mother's eyes falling on to the top of her own head.

"I love you, Mum." Lucie whispered.

"I love you more, kiddo." Katy replied and kissed the top of Lucie's head.

* * *

Lucie thought that maybe her conversation with her mum would help cool things down at home but it had the opposite effect. James apparently thought that Katy had told Lucie everything she wouldn't tell him because it was clear that Lucie and Katy were getting along much better.

"I didn't tell her, I haven't told anyone and I'm not going to." Katy stubbornly maintained to James.

"You can't just keep this a secret." James said, glaring at a spot on the wall.

"Why not?" Katy countered.

"We're married! You're not supposed to keep secrets like this from me. It is clearly hurting you and clearly causing you huge amounts of stress. You're scaring us."

"Stop it." Katy glowered. "Stop playing the nice guy. You don't want to hear these things, I don't want to say these things. Just give it up. It will be better for us and our marriage since you're so worried about it." Lucie was sitting on the floor in the hallway outside the kitchen listening to this. Maddie was in her room upstairs, not noticing and not hearing the fight between her parents. Lucie hated hearing people fight. She was fed up with it. She jumped up and went into the kitchen.

"She didn't tell me anything." Lucie said sharply, walking in and opening the fridge as an excuse to be there.

"Lucie stay out of this." James told her quickly.

"Don't snap at my daughter." Katy glared at James.

"I can't deal with this anymore!" Lucie yelled. "Stop fighting." She ran out of the room and upstairs into Maddie's room, distracting herself for the rest of the day with playing with her four year old sister in the innocent happy world Maddie lived in.

* * *

"Lucie!" Ginny shouted at her when she found her on the platform at the start of term. "Lucie, how are you? Did you survive?"

"Barely." Lucie groaned and then hugged Ginny. "I almost killed myself. It was terrible. If I could, I would vote to not go home for summer vacation."

"Wow, that bad?" Ginny sighed. "I'm sorry."

"I'm just glad to be back. Though I'm kind of worried my parents are going to keep fighting. Or not talking at all. They hardly spoke to each other the whole time. I don't know if that was because I was home or because they just don't speak much anymore." Lucie frowned. "I think my dad hates magic now."

"You don't think they're going to get divorced do you?" Ginny asked, looking worried as the two of them boarded the train and went to look for their friends.

Lucie hadn't thought of that before.

"I don't know." Lucie looked at the floor. "I hope not. I don't know what I'd do."

"Did you hear that Harry got a Firebolt for Christmas?" Ginny asked Lucie in the common room that night.

"No way!" Lucie gaped at her and then glanced over at Harry. "He doesn't look very happy, all things considered."

"Well no… Hermione told McGonagall because she thought maybe the broom was from Sirius Black, it had no card, you see." Ginny explained. "And McGonagall took the broom to 'strip it down' and check for hexes and curses. Ron wrote home and told us."

"Wow, so Harry had a rough Christmas too." Lucie said.

"I don't know, I think yours might have been worse." Ginny told her.

"I'm just glad it's over." Lucie sighed and the two of them headed upstairs to go to sleep.

_So I know it's short... Reviews! They make me write faster!_

_What do you guys think?_

_Love, Lily_


	11. Book Three: Chapter 5

_Hey all! I'm back with another update. but you should know, in like two days, the updates will stop for a few weeks. (i might potentially be able to update like once in twice in there... but it is highly unlikely.) so i'm trying to really get some stuff done. I've got both of the next two chapters almost done so i might even update twice tomorrow but i'm not sure._

_Kris 77: Don't worry, the chapters do get longer! This one is longer._

_HarryPotterResidentEvilFanJnL: Not to worry, more drama awaits! we are fast approaching the end of the school and you know what that means! :) Your reaction to James surprises me.. haha. At the end of Katy's story most people were telling me they hated him. yes, Maddie's a half blood and yes there are three left. did i say somewhere they were only two? oops.. sorry! Lucie may make some future appearances at the burrow... and you'll just have to wait and see who she dates. :D_

Chapter 5

Gryffindor was playing Ravenclaw at Quidditch. Lucie was terribly excited. It would be fantastic to stop thinking about Sirius Black for one day and have fun at a Quidditch match. Also, Harry had gotten his Firebolt back so there was really no chance on earth that Gryffindor might lose. The whole House was excited to bursting.

The Gryffindor team had put the broom in the middle of the table at breakfast before the match so the rest of the school could see and admire it. Even Draco Malfoy come over from the Slytherin table to make a few nasty comments and then report back to his team about the broom.

The Gryffindor second years all piled out to the stadium with the rest of the school. The Gryffindors were clearly the most excited of anyone for the match.

"**They're off, and the big excitement this match is the Firebolt that Harry Potter is flying for Gryffindor. According to **_**Which Broomstick**_**, the Firebolt's going to be the broom of choice for the national teams at this year's World Championship —" **

"**Jordan, would you mind telling us what's going on in the match?" interrupted Professor McGonagall's voice. **

"**Right you are, Professor — just giving a bit of background information — the Firebolt, incidentally, has a built-in auto-brake and —" **

"**Jordan!" **

"**Okay, okay, Gryffindor in possession, Katie Bell of Gryffindor, heading for goal…"**

Much of the game was a back and forth between commentator Lee Jordan and McGonagall because Lee kept getting distracted and telling the crowd the various features of Harry's Firebolt.

"Look!" Haley squeaked after the crowd watched Harry trick Cho Chang into a dive. Harry was pulling upwards as fast as he could but around the time Lucie heard Haley, Harry appeared to have noticed them as well.

There were three Dementors in the middle of the Quidditch pitch. Lucie, and almost everyone around was staring at Dumbledore to see how he would react. He had risen, but looked mildly confused.

"**EXPECTO PATRINUM" **Harry roared and pelted further up. A giant silver creature erupted out of Harry's wand. It appeared to be some sort of deer; it was tall with enormous antlers. It charged at the Dementors and knocked them down. Lucie frowned, could Dementors really just fall down like that?

"I don't think those are really Dementors…" Ginny said to Lucie and sure enough, they weren't. The crumples of black robes on the pitch were struggling, there were obviously people under there.

"Harry got the snitch!" Tommy shouted and they all began to cheer.

**Lying in a crumpled heap on the ground were Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Marcus Flint, the Slytherin team Captain, all struggling to remove themselves from long, black, hooded robes. It looked as though Malfoy had been standing on Goyle's shoulders. Standing over them, with an expression of the utmost fury on her face, was Professor McGonagall. **

"**An unworthy trick!" she was shouting. "A low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker! Detention for all of you, and fifty points from Slytherin! I shall be speaking to Professor Dumbledore about this, make no mistake! Ah, here he comes now!"**

Gryffindor tower partied late into the night. There were drinks and treats of the like Lucie had never seen before. At one in the morning Professor McGonagall turned up and made everyone go to bed.

"That was the best day ever!" Lucie grinned as she walked up the stairs. "Have you guys ever had that drink, what-do-you-call-it?"

"Butterbeer?" Ginny said. "It's good!"

The second year girls stayed up a little while longer chatting about the party before one by one drifting off to sleep. After about half an hour Lucie was the only one still awake. She had spent many sleepless nights thinking about the conversation she had had with her mum over Christmas break.

"_Just promise me we can talk it over and you won't hate me."_

Lucie was scared by that promise. She didn't know what her mother could possibly mean by it. Part of her was wondering if her mother had done something terrible as a young adult. Lucie really, really wanted to believe that her mother had not in any way been affiliated with You-Know-Who, but Katy was acting like something that awful was going on. As far as Lucie could see, there was no other explanation. This is what kept Lucie up so many nights, she was doing everything in her power to force her memory to produce something else her mother had ever said that would give her another clue, something to prove You-Know-Who had nothing to do with her mother's departure from the Wizarding World.

* * *

Katy was laying in bed, unable to sleep. Her quiet, peaceful, Muggle life was rapidly deteriorating. Everything had been perfect until Sirius had escaped. He always seemed to ruin her life just when it was at its best. James had been warming up to the idea of magic quite nicely. He wasn't as wary or freaked out when she used magic in the house. Lucie was overjoyed at finding out she was a witch and everyone had been happy. Then Sirius escaped and her carefully balanced life was being tested. Her life was like a house of cards, fragile and breakable. Katy knew that it wasn't going to hold up forever. But how long could she hold up herself? She and James were slipping further and further apart as the tension mounted. Katy knew she was to blame. If she had just confessed from the start, everything would be on the table and hopefully everyone would be more okay with it. But she couldn't tell James, she just couldn't. He would never forgive her. And she couldn't blame him.

But it hardly looked like she would ever have the chance to tell him because they hardly spoke to each other anymore. Katy hardly went into the bookstore anymore and James stayed at work as late as he could every evening. Katy spent most of her days with Maddie, she had stopped sending Maddie to day care because she had nothing to do. Dinner time was the worst, Katy and James both spoke to Maddie during the entire meal, but barely exchanged two words to each other. James would go to bed when Katy took Maddie upstairs to put her to bed and he would be asleep by the time Katy went to bed herself.

Katy knew it was simply a battle of stubbornness that was keeping her and James from making up. He wouldn't apologize until she came to him to tell him her secret and she wouldn't even consider telling her anything until he apologized and understood that maybe there were some things that a person has a good reason for not sharing.

Katy rolled over in the bed and looked at James sleeping beside her. She hadn't seen him looking peaceful in months. He didn't even look peaceful in his sleep. His brow was furrowed and there was a tiny downturn to his mouth. Katy felt the weight of causing him all this pain come crashing down on her. If only she hadn't met him. He had a perfectly normal life before she came into it. Katy sighed and turned back over.

* * *

At three in the morning Lucie heard a shout from the boys dorms. It was rather loud, and if it was loud to Lucie, the person yelling must have been in a considerable amount of distress. None of Lucie's dorm mates had woken up from the yell. Ginny turned over and rubbed her eyes but was immediately asleep again. Lucie could hear people walking down the stairs into the common room and more shouting. She slipped out of her bed and went down the stairs after some fifth years. She found a considerable amount of people in the common room, all looking drowsy and confused, with Harry and Ron at the center.

"**Excellent, are we carrying on?" said Fred Weasley brightly. **

"**Everyone back upstairs!" said Percy, hurrying into the common room and pinning his Head Boy badge to his pajamas as he spoke. **

"**Perce — Sirius Black!" said Ron faintly. "In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!" **

**The common room went very still. **

"**Nonsense!" said Percy, looking startled. "You had too much to eat, Ron — had a nightmare —" **

"**I'm telling you —" **

"**Now, really, enough's enough!" **

**Professor McGonagall was back. She slammed the portrait behind her as she entered the common room and stared furiously around. **

"**I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!" **

"**I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" said Percy, puffing himself up indignantly. "I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare —" **

"**IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron yelled. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!"**

**Professor McGonagall stared at him. **

"**Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?" **

"**Ask him!" said Ron, pointing a shaking finger at the back of Sir Cadogan's picture. "Ask him if he saw —" **

**Glaring suspiciously at Ron, Professor McGonagall pushed the portrait back open and went outside. The whole common room listened with bated breath. "Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?" **

"**Certainly, good lady!" cried Sir Cadogan. **

**There was a stunned silence, both inside and outside the common room. **

"**You — you **_**did**_**?" said Professor McGonagall. "But — but the password!" **

"**He had 'em!" said Sir Cadogan proudly. "Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!" **

**Professor McGonagall pulled herself back through the portrait hole to face the stunned crowd. She was white as chalk. **

"**Which person," she said, her voice shaking, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?" **

**There was utter silence, broken by the smallest of terrified squeaks. Neville Longbottom, trembling from head to fluffy slippered toes, raised his hand slowly into the air. **

"You didn't…" McGonagall said, her fury making her voice barely audible. "Longbottom, you didn't." She stepped forward and walked up to him. He shrank backward against the wall. "Why, Longbottom, why would you have this week's passwords on a paper?"

"Sir Cadagan was always changing them." Neville whispered, terrified. "I couldn't remember them."

"Detention, Mr. Longbottom. Detention for unimaginable foolishness and lack of foresight and putting your entire house in serious danger. And no more Hogsmeade visits for you." McGonagall was almost shaking with anger. It was scary to watch. Lucie found herself feeling bad for Neville. "To prevent further misplacements of the password, Mr. Longbottom is forbidden from having the passwords to Gryffindor Tower. No one may tell him." McGonagall gave everyone in the common room her most severe look and turned and left. "I am going to alert to other teachers of the break in and we shall search the castle for Black. None of you are to leave this Tower."

Neville was left standing alone against the wall of the room. Most people gave him disgusted looks before turning and hurrying back upstairs. A few people glared and said things like, "good one, Longbottom" before departing but most people ignored him other than a withering glare.

Lucie didn't know why she wasn't leaving, but she had allowed everyone else to go past her on the stairs. Neville looked uncertainly at her.

"I'm sorry I let Sirius Black into the tower." He said quietly, looking at his feet.

"I know." Lucie said, something inside her felt like reaching out to him. She felt like she knew him, even though this was the first time she had spoken to him in her life. "I'm sorry you just had to go through that."

"You're not going to call me stupid or yell at me about Black?" Neville looked up, confused.

"No." Lucie shrugged. "I almost wrote all the passwords down myself. That stupid little knight is completely bonkers, changing the password ten times a day." Lucie grinned and was glad to see Neville smiled a little back. There was a moment's silence. "Well, good night." Lucie said quickly and turned to go.

"Wait," Neville said. "I'm sorry I'm asking this, you were just so nice to me so I feel horrible asking this, I really do." Neville took a deep breath. "I don't remember your name." He looked at the floor and wouldn't meet her eyes.

At that very moment, a flood of people came shooting down the stairs. It seemed everyone had gone upstairs to wake up their dorm mates and tell the story.

"Sirius Black almost killed my brother and you didn't wake me up?" Ginny gaped at Lucie, dragging her away from Neville.

"Well I didn't know what had happened when I came downstairs, did I?"

"But you did after." Ginny pointed out.

"Well, you know now."

"What exactly did he say happened?"

"He said he woke up and saw Black standing over him holding a knife." Lucie told Ginny. "Why don't you go ask him. He's right over there."

"Ron!" Ginny shrieked. "What happened?" Ginny ran over, followed by Lucie, Maggie, Charlotte, Emma and Haley. Lucie wasn't sure where the rest of her room mates had come from but suddenly they were there.

"… **I was asleep, and I heard this ripping noise, and I thought it was in my dream, you know? But then there was this draft… I woke up and one side of the hangings on my bed had been pulled down… I rolled over… and I saw him standing over me… like a skeleton, with loads of filthy hair… holding this great long knife, must've been twelve inches… and he looked at me, and I looked at him, and then I yelled, and he scampered."**

Ginny looked bewildered.

Ron had turned to Harry and was saying something quietly so that Lucie and her friends couldn't hear. Harry frowned in confusion and then whispered back something, a suggestion perhaps. Lucie didn't know. Lucie had still never spoken to the great Harry Potter, although she was fairly sure she had known him as a baby, not that that really meant anything.

"Um, hello?" Harry was frowning at her. Lucie realized she had been staring at him, lost in her own thoughts.

"Oh," Lucie could feel her face turning red. "Sorry, I was… uh… daydreaming."

"Okay…" Harry looked confused.

"Can I ask you something?" Lucie blurted out without thinking.

"Er… okay." Harry looked at Ron who shrugged back.

"Do you know anyone who was friends with your dad?" Lucie said, looking hopefully at Harry before realizing how absurd a question that must sound like and turning red again.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Nevermind." Lucie said quickly and hurried away.

"What was that all about?" Ginny asked, hurrying to catch up to Lucie.

"Nothing, it was nothing." Lucie said.

"Why do you care if he knows people who were friends with his dad?" Emma asked. "Does his dad mean anything to you?"

"Well, not really." Lucie shrugged.

"Not really?" Ginny asked.

"I think my parents were friends with his parents." Lucie said quietly.

"What?" Ginny shrieked and some people around them looked up, concerned.

"Nevermind!" Lucie frowned. "I don't know for sure."

"Why do you think that?" Haley asked, her eyes wide. She looked vaguely impressed.

"Something my mum said when my Hogwarts letter came." Lucie told them. "But I don't know for sure."

"Well then, why did you walk away back there. Go find out!" Emma told her. "You're friends with Harry Potter!"

"No I'm not." Lucie shook her head. "Our dad's might have been friends. That's it. Besides, why would he know? Ginny says the Muggles he lives with hate magic. He probably doesn't know who his dad was friends with."

At dawn, Professor McGonagall returned to Gryffindor Tower to let them know that Black had escaped again. The staff had combed every inch of the castle but he had gotten out.

_Aaaaand the plot thickens. :P They're all wrong about Sirius obviously, but you know, drama is still fun._

_anyway. review review review! :)_

_Love, Lily_


	12. Book Three: Chapter 6

_Hey there guys. So I'm just updating once today. I might update tomorrow, not sure. But please review! It motivates me to update faster. :) Thanks so much!_

Chapter 6

By the morning of the Quidditch final between Gryffindor and Slytherin, the whole school was going mad with the excitement of it. The Gryffindor team was welcomed into the Great Hall at breakfast with cheers from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw while Slytherin booed and hissed. Gryffindor hadn't won the Cup in eight years and every single member of the house was desperate to win.

* * *

"**And here are the Gryffindors!" yelled Lee Jordan, who was acting as commentator as usual. "Potter, Bell, Johnson, Spinnet, Weasley, Weasley, and Wood. Widely acknowledged as the best team Hogwarts has seen in a good few years —" **

**Lee's comments were drowned by a tide of 'boos' from the Slytherin end. **

"**And here come the Slytherin team, led by Captain Flint. He's made some changes in the lineup and seems to be going for size rather than skill —" **

**More boos from the Slytherin crowd. ... Malfoy was easily the smallest person On the Slytherin team; the rest of them were enormous. **

"**Captains, shake hands!" said Madam Hooch. **

**Flint and Wood approached each other and grasped each other's hand very tightly; it looked as though each was trying to break the other's fingers. **

"**Mount your brooms!" said Madam Hooch. **

"**Three… two… one…" The sound of her whistle was lost in the roar from the crowd as fourteen brooms rose into the air. **

"**And it's Gryffindor in possession, Alicia Spinnet of Gryffindor with the Quaffle, heading straight for the Slytherin goal posts, looking good, Alicia! Argh, no — Quaffle intercepted by Warrington, Warrington of Slytherin tearing up the field — WHAM! — nice Bludger work there by George Weasley, Warrington drops the Quaffle, it's caught by — Johnson, Gryffindor back in possession, come on, Angelina — nice swerve around Montague — duck, Angelina, that's a Bludger! – SHE SCORES! TEN-ZERO TO GRYFFINDOR!" **

**Angelina punched the air as she soared around the end of the field; the sea of scarlet below was screaming its delight. **

**"OUCH!" **

**Angelina was nearly thrown from her broom as Marcus Flint went smashing into her. **

"**Sorry!" said Flint as the crowd below booed. "Sorry, didn't see her!" **

**A moment later, Fred Weasley chucked his Beater's club at the back of Flint's head. Flint's nose smashed into the handle of his broom and began to bleed. **

"Good shot, Fred!" Ginny shouted, grinning at Lucie.

"**That will do!" shrieked Madam Hooch, zooming between then. "Penalty shot to Gryffindor for an unprovoked attack on their Chaser! Penalty shot to Slytherin for deliberate damage to their Chaser!"**

"**Come off it, Miss!" howled Fred, but Madam Hooch blew her whistle and Alicia flew forward to take the penalty. **

"**Come on, Alicia!" yelled Lee into the silence that had descended on the crowd. "YES! SHE'S BEATEN THE KEEPER! TWENTY-ZERO TO GRYFFINDOR!" **

**Harry turned the Firebolt sharply to watch Flint, still bleeding freely, fly forward to take the Slytherin penalty. Wood was hovering in front of the Gryffindor goal posts, his jaw clenched. **

"'**Course, Wood's a superb Keeper!" Lee Jordan told the crowd as Flint waited for Madam Hooch's whistle. "Superb! Very difficult to pass — very difficult indeed — YES! I DON'T BELIEVE IT! HE'S SAVED IT!"**

Everywhere in the stands, except the Slytherin end, erupted into cheers that Gryffindor had stopped the Slytherin goal.

The game continued on, getting more and more brutal as it went. The Slytherins were fouling like there was no tomorrow. The Gryffindor Keeper, Oliver Wood, got two Bludgers to the stomach and Malfoy grabbed Harry's broom to keep Harry from reaching the Snitch.

"Malfoy's seen the Snitch!" Will yelled angrily, pointing downward. Malfoy was diving toward the ground as fast as he could go. Harry had just noticed and set his Firebolt off at full speed.

"Come on, Harry!" Lucie shrieked, along with most of the rest of the stadium.

**Harry threw himself forward, took both hands off his broom. He knocked Malfoy's arm out of the way and — **

"**YES!" **

**He pulled out of his dive, his hand in the air, and the stadium exploded. Harry soared above the crowd, ... . The tiny golden ball was held tight in his fist, beating its wings hopelessly against his fingers.**

Everyone was screaming and cheering and dancing and hugging and Lucie had never had so much fun in all her life.

* * *

That night, Gryffindor celebrated with a party to rival their celebration after beating Ravenclaw. On the whole, the party was more of a success because McGonagall didn't force them to stop and Sirius Black didn't try to kill anyone.

Lucie was laughing and chatting with Will and Tommy around midnight when Harry walked over to her.

"You're the one who asked me who my dad was friends with, right?"

"Oh," Lucie looked at her feet. "Yeah, that was me. Sorry."

"It's fine." Harry grinned, he was clearly too elated by winning the Cup to care much about what some random person had asked him. "Lupin was friends with my dad." He grinned once more and ran off.

"That was weird." Tommy observed. "What was he on about?"

"I asked him if he knew anyone who was friends with his dad."

"Why?" Will asked, looking at Lucie like she might be mad.

"I think my dad was friends with his dad." Lucie thought for a moment. "Did he just say 'Lupin'? As in, _Professor_ Lupin?"

"I don't know any other Lupin…" Tommy said. "Do you?"

"I don't." Will said.

"Me neither." Lucie said thoughtfully.

* * *

Exams were over. Lucie was overjoyed. No more tests until next year. But then another thought occurred to her. This was her last chance to try and get some answers out of Professor Lupin before she went home for the summer. And especially since Harry had told her Lupin had known his father. Lucie was sure that that meant Lupin had known her parents as well. And she had to get answers out of him because Lucie was not confident that her mother's promise to tell her everything, meant that it would happen this summer.

"Where are you going?" Ginny looked at Lucie like she was insane as Lucie stood up. All the Gryffindor second years were sitting outside in the sun, enjoying their freedom. Lucie had turned back in the direction of the castle. "Why are you going back inside?"

"I've got to ask someone something." Lucie said and turned away before anyone could ask another question and ran up to the castle.

Once in the castle, Lucie slowed down to a walk, trying to come up with what she was going to say in her mind. Nothing was sounding good, she wasn't even sure exactly what she thought she would get out of talking to Lupin but she knew she had to try.

Professor Lupin was, however, not in his office. Lucie sighed and roamed the castle by herself. However, it was almost dinnertime and she rejoined her friends at the table.

"Did you figure that thing out..?" Ginny asked curiously.

"No," Lucie frowned. "I'm going to look for Lupin again after dinner. I have to find him!"

"Why?" Ginny frowned.

"There is something important I have to ask him."

"What?"

"Remember how I asked Harry if he knew of anyone who knew his dad?"

Ginny nodded.

"Harry told me that Lupin knew his dad. And I know Lupin knew my mum. So he probably knew my dad as well. And my mum has been keeping a lot of things from me and I want to know some of them. I need to ask him about her. She's scaring me." Lucie frowned. "I'm going to go find him now." Lucie stood up, scanned the staff table to see that Lupin was not there and hurried out.

* * *

"Katy." James' voice, icy and hard, interrupted Katy's thoughts of Sirius. "Katy you have to tell me something, I can't go on living like this. We can stay like this and I won't stay like this. You have to tell me."

Katy looked at him and saw anger and fear radiating off of his body. She could sense that he had had to work hard to finish his sentence at "you have to tell me" and not continue with "or I'm leaving you". But he was right. They couldn't go on like this, this wasn't a marriage, this wasn't even a relationship.

"I was married to him." Katy whispered. "Technically I still am."

"You said your husband died." James said, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"I wish he had." Katy said, looking at the floor.

"Who?" James said severely.

"Sirius Black." Katy said, her voice so quiet she could barely hear herself.

"YOU'RE MARRIED TO THAT MURDERER?" James bellowed and honestly Katy didn't blame him.

"Yes, I'm sorry James, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Lucie will never forgive me, never ever." Katy started to cry.

"Lucie's father is murderer." James stated blankly. "I cannot believe you are married to someone else. And that _he_ is that someone else." He was glowering at her so fiercely that Katy thought she might just die right there. "You married me but you were still married to a murderer. A _murderer_. I can't even begin to comprehend that. I don't understand you. And apparently I don't know you." He turned away from her. "I have to leave," he said slowly.

Katy stood stalk still and watched as he left the room and went up the stairs to their bedroom. She was numb. She didn't really know what had just happened. Katy stood there shaking, trembling and crying while various bumps and thuds from upstairs sounded. But Katy was not aware of them. She didn't come out of her trance until she was shaken out by the slam of a door. The front door. Katy ran upstairs to find her bedroom had been emptied of all of James' things. She heard his car starting out front. He had really gone. She had driven him out. Katy began to cry again, this time loudly and desperately. Sirius ruined everything. He had ruined her life as a witch and now he had ruined her life as a Muggle.

Hardly aware of what she was doing, Katy rushed into Maddie's room and scooped up the little girl and ran downstairs. She threw some powder into the fire and disappeared with Maddie shouting "Hogwarts".

* * *

_About half an hour earlier..._

Lucie ran to Lupin's classroom and this time he was there. He was seated at his desk, with a large piece of parchment spread out in front of him. He whispered something and tapped it. His eyes began searching over it.

"Excuse me, Professor?" Lucie stepped forward and he looked up, startled. "Can I ask you something?"

"Certainly, Lucie." Lupin smiled and beckoned for her to sit down, glancing back at the parchment.

"What's that?" Lucie asked curiously, as she got closer to the desk, the parchment appeared to be an intricate map though Lucie didn't know what it was a map of.

"Did you come and find me here in my classroom after dinner when you are done with exams simply to ask me about a piece of parchment on my desk?" Lupin asked, clearly amused and clearly joking.

"You just seem awfully concerned by it." Lucie shrugged. "I want to ask you about my mum."

Lupin frowned.

"Lucie, I've told you before, if Katy doesn't want to tell you something, it's not my place to tell you."

"But there's one thing I have to ask you."

"Very well." Lupin sighed.

"Is she a bad person?" Lucie's voice was so small and so quiet that she hardly heard herself. She felt foolish asking this question and looked at her feet.

"What?" Professor Lupin walked over to her and took a firm hold on her shoulders. "What would make you think that? No, no of course not! Your mother was a very good person, one of the best I knew!"

"Then what did she do?" Lucie looked up at Lupin and saw her own pain reflected in his eyes.

"I don't think she did anything." Lupin said slowly, backing away from Lucie, back towards his desk.

"Then why is everything a secret?" Lucie cried. "I know you know!"

Lupin took a deep breath and looked around. Something on the map on his desk caught his eye. He nodded to himself and then turned back to Lucie.

"I don't know everything." He said sadly. "There are a lot of things I don't know or understand. I'm sorry I can't help you."

"How did you know her?" Lucie asked after a long pause. Lupin looked surprised.

"We met at school. We were both in Gryffindor the same year."

"Were you friends?" Lucie smiled. Even if she couldn't get what she wanted, if she learned a little more about her mum, that would be okay.

"Yes." Lupin said, looking away from Lucie. Suddenly Lucie had an idea she hadn't thought of before. Maybe they hadn't just been _friends_. And then suddenly something new hit her, something wonderful and new. Lupin had been friends with Harry's father. Why hadn't she seen it before?

"Professor!" Lucie jumped up from her chair. "Are you my father?" She beamed at him.

"What?" Lupin looked highly startled. "Am I your – no, no I'm not! Not your father. Why would you think that?" He was looking down at her with a confused and pitying eye.

"Oh." Lucie sat down, feeling ready to cry. She had thought she had figured it out. For one beautiful moment she thought she had found her father. "Well you said you were friends." Lucie glanced up at Lupin. "But you wouldn't look at me when you said it. I thought maybe you guys had been together." Lucie felt deflated. "And I know that my father was friends with Harry's father. And he said you were friends with his father."

"No, Lucie. Your mother was a good friend of mine, but just a friend."

"Then you must know my father!" Lucie cried, jumping up again. Lupin opened his mouth to say something but the map on his desk caught his eye and his entire face changed. He was frozen, staring at the paper in shock and confusion. "Who is my father?"

Lucie heard the door behind her open and she hardly had time to register her shock at seeing her mother come pelting in the room before her shock was doubled because Katy slapped Remus' shoulder, knocking him over and out of his trance, staring at the map.

"_I thought you were dead!_" Katy shrieked. "I wrote to you, every day for_ two years! I_ wrote and wrote and wrote and begged and begged you! I wrote to you every day and you ignored me." She was fuming.

"Katy, I know," Lupin's eyes were full of tears. "Katy, not now," His voice was urgent and troubled. "Look." He stood up and grabbed her arm, forcing her over to his desk. Katy's body seized up at the sight of the map. "Look." He repeated.

"No…" Katy gaped at what she saw. "No, it can't be… it isn't possible. He's dead. That isn't possible."

"Mum? What are you doing here?" Lucie cried, appalled and confused. Katy turned and her eyes bulged at the sight of Lucie. Obviously she hadn't noticed her. "What is going on? And who's dead?"

_Dun dun dunnnnnn. :) Oh drama. Oh dear, delightful drama. And just so you guys all know. That is not the last time you will see James though I won't tell you in what way(s) he will be seen again._

_You all know the answer to Lucie's question just there? Yes? :) I hope I succeeded in making it so that you guys understand when and where this all is happening._

_Please, please review!_

_Lots of love, Lily_


	13. Book Three: Chapter 7

_hey kids, me again. :) Not a lot to say... sorry for the long time (yet again..). but i guess that's life. Don't worry I won't just be giving up on this story, but i will just not be able to update super super regularly.. anyway, here goes:_

Chapter 7

Lucie stared at Katy, Katy stared back, both of them at a loss for words.

"No!" Lupin shouted at the map on the table, pounding his fists angrily. "I'm sorry, Lucie, there's no time to explain. You have to stay here."

Katy looked at the part of the map where Lupin had been staring and a look of utter and complete terror overcame her. Lucie stood up and pushed her mother out of the way so she could see the map herself. She didn't immediately understand. It seemed to be a map of Hogwarts. But there were little dots moving around. And they were labeled. Following her mother's horrified gaze, Lucie saw five dots clustered near each other in one corner. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were moving around in awkward, abrupt movements that didn't seem natural. But Ron Weasley was moving in unison with, Lucie's heart missed a beat, Sirius Black, and someone called Peter Pettigrew who Lucie had never heard of before.

"Lucie, don't come." Katy warned and she and Lupin took off. Lucie didn't know who they were kidding; she was clearly going with them. She ran as fast as she could off after her mother and professor.

Lucie didn't know where they were going or what was going on. She followed them out of the doors of the castle and down onto the grounds. They went by Hagrid's hut before skidding to a halt in the near dark by the Whomping Willow tree. Its branches began lashing out at them. Lucie was petrified with fear. She didn't understand anything that had happened since she had gone to see Professor Lupin. She was almost wishing she had stayed at dinner with Ginny, but she was far too curious to turn back.

"Go – back – to – the – castle!" Katy said hoarsely to Lucie.

"No!" Lucie glared. "What's going on?"

Why were they chasing after Sirius Black? All Lucie could think of was to save Harry, Ron and Hermione. But why not just go and get Dumbledore?

Lupin picked up a broken branch from the ground and ran forward, darting amongst the branches, to poke a knot in the tree. It froze. Lucie gaped at Lupin, how did he know to do that? Lupin ran down into an opening in the roots of the tree. Katy took a deep breath and followed. More confused than ever, Lucie ran after them.

They were in a low, underground tunnel. They crawled along it and made slow progress. The tunnel was long and they had to bend over almost double. Lucie was behind her mother who was violently shaking the entire time they crawled. Finally it began to slope upwards and they found themselves coming out into a small and extremely dusty old room. Lupin looked around the room for a moment and shivered. Lucie was very confused. Apparently there were people upstairs who heard Lucie, Katy and Lupin come in because Hermione's voice rang out, terrified, from above.

"**WE'RE UP HERE!"… "WE'RE UP HERE — SIRIUS BLACK — QUICK!"**

Lucie saw her mother clutch at her heart and exchange a glance with Lupin. With matching looks of fury and confusion, the two of them raced up the stairs, Lucie hot on their heels.

Lupin blasted open the door with his wand and stopped in the doorway. Katy stopped for a split second and then ran forward again. Lucie took Katy's place in the doorway and saw the man who's face had grinned insanely out of the _Daily Prophet_ so many months ago. He was even more terrible in person.

Katy ran directly up to him and punched him in the nose as hard as she could. His nose immediately began to bleed.

_You – Ruined – My – Life!" _She yelled at him and accentuating each word with a punch to Black's chest. Lupin ran forward and grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back, holding firmly onto one of her arms. Lucie had never been more scared in her entire life.

"_**Expelliarmus!**_**" Lupin shouted.**

**Harry's wand flew once more out of his hand; so did the two Hermione was holding. Lupin caught them all deftly, then moved into the room, staring at Black, … .**

There was a moment of silence except for Katy began to sob uncontrollably. Harry, Ron and Hermione turned to look at her with utmost confusion.

"Professor Lupin?" Hermione asked quickly. "Who is that?" She pointed at Katy.

He ignored Hermione's question.

**Then Lupin spoke, in a very tense voice.**

"**Where is he, Sirius?"**

Lucie didn't have a clue what was going on. And from the looks of it, neither did Harry, Ron or Hermione. After a few moments of painful silence, Sirius Black raised a shaking arm and pointed at Ron.

Lucie stepped forward, approaching her mother who was still crying though silently now. Tears were pouring down her face as she stared at Black with such extreme pain that Lucie felt her fear double.

Then something in her brain clicked. Lucie heard Dumbledore's voice in her head from almost two years ago, "_I promise that who her father is will not limit her at Hogwarts_"_. _She saw her mother's look of terror when Lucie showed her the newspaper saying Black had escaped. Lucie remembered how her mother had been all summer. And all year.

Suddenly she understood.

"It's him, isn't it?" she spoke for the first time. Katy turned her tear-stained face toward Lucie. "Sirius Black." Lucie turned away from her mother and looked at Sirius Black again. Her voice had attracted his attention on her for the first time. He was looking at her like she was more terrifying to him than he was to her.

"Lucie," Black croaked, his voice so heavy with emotion and pain that Lucie took an involuntary step back.

"No." Katy stepped in front of her. "Don't speak to her." She glared at Black so angrily Lucie thought he might die right then and there. "Don't you dare speak to her."

"Where is he, Sirius?" Lupin repeated himself, it seemed to Lucie he was trying to move the conversation past the discovery Lucie had just made. Black pointed towards Ron again without taking his eyes off Lucie.

"Hang on." Ron cut in. "Who are you?" he frowned at Katy. "And you're Ginny's friend, aren't you?" Lucie nodded. "What is going on here?"

"I don't know." Lucie responded, her eyes were full of tears and her voice was thick.

"How do you know him?" Ron asked suspiciously, turning his attention to Katy.

"He's my father!" Lucie blurted out. Katy turned to her, horrified. Harry looked back and forth between Lucie and Black, dumbfounded.

"_What?_" Ron and Hermione both shouted at the same time.

"I married him." Katy said in a small voice. All eyes turned to her. "But that isn't important. Peter is important."

"Who is Peter?" Hermione asked.

"Peter's dead." Katy said. Lucie was very confused. If he was dead, why was he so important? And why would her mother possibly think it wasn't important that she had married Sirius Black?

"He isn't dead." Black snarled.

"**But then…" Lupin muttered, staring at Black so intently it seemed he was trying to read his mind, "… why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless" — Lupin's eyes suddenly widened, as though he was seeing something beyond Black, something none of the rest could see, "— unless he was the one… unless you switched… without telling me? **Without telling anyone.?" Lupin looked incredulously at Black and then turned to Katy, who was staring, apparently bewitched, at Lupin. "You didn't tell Katy."

Katy wiped the tears off her face and turned to Black with a look of such expectation that Lucie thought she might burst. Katy clearly understood what Lupin had meant, though Lucie was completely at a loss.

Slowly, Black nodded to Lupin. Katy burst into a fresh wave of utterly distraught sobs and Lupin stepped forward and pulled Sirius Black into a tight hug. The two men stood there embracing each other for a moment before Katy ran forward, shoved Lupin out of the way and pulled Black into the tightest embrace Lucie had ever seen. After a few seconds however, Katy seemed to have second thoughts about the whole business and pulled away and punched Black again, this time in the gut. He staggered, but Lucie couldn't help noticing he didn't look surprised.

"**I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Hermione screamed. **

**She had raised herself off the floor and was pointing at Lupin, wild-eyed. "You — you —" **

"**Hermione —" **

"– **you and him!" **

"**Hermione, calm down —" **

"**I didn't tell anyone!" Hermione shrieked. "I've been covering up for you —" **

"**Hermione, listen to me, please" Lupin shouted. "I can explain —" **

Lucie was shaking. It seemed most of the people in the little room were. Harry was shaking just as hard as Lucie was. Lucie wondered briefly what was going on in Harry's mind right then.

"**I trusted you," he shouted at Lupin, his voice wavering, out of control, "and all the time you've been his friend!"**

A similar thought was going through Lucie's mind, directed not only at Lupin, but at her mother. How could Katy have thought it was for the better to not tell Lucie her father was escaped mass-murderer Sirius Black?

"**You're wrong," said Lupin. "I haven't been Sirius's friend, but I am now — Let me explain…" **

This was exactly what Lucie wanted to hear. All she had ever wanted was explanations. Finally, after months, Lucie was ready to get her explanations.

"**NO!" Hermione screamed. "Harry, don't trust him, he's been helping Black get into the castle, he wants you dead too — he's a werewolf!" **

**There was a ringing silence. Everyone's eyes were now on Lupin, who looked remarkably calm, though rather pale.**

Lucie felt herself freeze up. Professor Lupin was a werewolf? Lucie glanced at her mother, but Katy looked unsurprised. Lucie had been writing home telling her mother about her werewolf teacher all year and Katy hadn't bothered to mention that either? What else had Katy concealed?

"**Not at all up to your usual standard, Hermione," he said. "Only one out of three, I'm afraid. I have not been helping Sirius get into the castle and I certainly don't want Harry dead." An odd shiver passed over his face. "But I won't deny that I am a werewolf."**

**Ron made a valiant effort to get up again but fell back with a whimper of pain. Lupin made toward him, looking concerned, but Ron gasped, "Get away from me, werewolf!" **

**Lupin stopped dead. Then, with an obvious effort, he turned to Hermione and said, "How long have you known?" **

"**Ages," Hermione whispered. "Since I did Professor Snape's essay…" **

"**He'll be delighted," said Lupin coolly. "He assigned that essay hoping someone would realize what my symptoms meant… Did you check the lunar chart and realize that I was always ill at the full moon? Or did you realize that the Boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?" **

"**Both," Hermione said quietly. **

**Lupin forced a laugh. **

"**You're the cleverest witch of your age I've ever met, Hermione." **

"**I'm not," Hermione whispered. "If I'd been a bit cleverer, I'd have told everyone what you are!" **

"**But they already know," said Lupin. "At least, the staff do." **

"**Dumbledore hired you when he knew you were a werewolf," Ron gasped. "Is he mad?" **

"**Some of the staff thought so," said Lupin. "He had to work very hard to convince certain teachers that I'm trustworthy —" **

"**AND HE WAS WRONG!" Harry yelled. "YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THE TIME!" He was pointing at Black, who suddenly crossed to the four-poster bed and sank onto it, his face hidden in one shaking hand. Crookshanks leapt up beside him and stepped onto his lap, purring. Ron edged away from both of them, dragging his leg.**

"Stop it!" Lucie shouted. She didn't want people to yell, she wanted Lupin, Black and her mother to explain what was happening. "Stop yelling, everyone. What is going on here, exactly?"

"**I have not been helping Sirius," said Lupin. "If you'll give me a chance, I'll explain. Look —" **

**He separated Harry's, Ron's and Hermione's wands and threw each back to its owner; Harry caught his, stunned. **

"**There," said Lupin, sticking his own wand back into his belt "You're armed, we're not. Now will you listen?"**

Lucie had never anticipated an explanation for anything more than she did at that very moment.

"**If you haven't been helping him," he said, with a furious glance at Black, "how did you know he was here?" **

"**The map," said Lupin. "The Marauder's Map. I was in my office examining it —" **

"**You know how to work it?" Harry said suspiciously. **

"**Of course I know how to work it," said Lupin, waving his hand impatiently. "I helped write it. I'm Moony — that was my friends' nickname for me at school." **

"**You wrote —?" **

"**The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you, Ron, and Hermione might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid before his Hippogriff was executed. And I was right, wasn't I?"**

"That's what you were looking at!" Lucie cried.

"Yes, Lucie here came to visit me this evening, wanting to know many things about the past." Lupin glanced at Black and then at Katy and the two of them exchanged a look.

**He had started to pace up and down, looking at them. Little patches of dust rose at his feet. **

"**You might have been wearing your father's old cloak, Harry—" **

"**How d'you know about the cloak?" **

"**The number of times I saw James disappearing under it…" said Lupin, waving an impatient hand again. "The point is, even if you're wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you still show up on the Marauder's Map. I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty minutes later, you left Hagrid, and set off back toward the castle. But you were now accompanied by somebody else." **

"**What?" said Harry. "No, we weren't!" **

"**I couldn't believe my eyes," said Lupin, still pacing, and ignoring Harry's interruption. "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could he be with you?" **

"**No one was with us!" said Harry. **

"**And then I saw another dot, moving fast toward you, labeled Sirius Black… I saw him collide with you; I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow —" **

"**One of us!" Ron said angrily. **

"**No, Ron," said Lupin. "Two of you." **

**He had stopped his pacing, his eyes moving over Ron. **

"**Do you think I could have a look at the rat?" he said evenly. **

"**What?" said Ron. "What's Scabbers got to do with it?" **

"**Everything," said Lupin. "Could I see him, please?" **

**Ron hesitated, then put a hand inside his robes. Scabbers emerged, thrashing desperately; Ron had to seize his long bald tail to stop him escaping. Crookshanks stood up on Black's leg and made a soft hissing noise. **

**Lupin moved closer to Ron. He seemed to be holding his breath as he gazed intently at Scabbers. **

"**What?" Ron said again, holding Scabbers close to him, looking scared. "What's my rat got to do with anything?" **

"**That's not a rat," croaked Sirius Black suddenly. **

"**What d'you mean — of course he's a rat —" **

"**No, he's not," said Lupin quietly. "He's a wizard." **

"**An Animagus," said Black, "by the name of Peter Pettigrew." **

Lucie stared at Lupin. Katy had said "Peter's dead" only earlier that evening. Far from being satisfied, this "explanation" was only creating more questions in Lucie's head.

"You haven't told us how she got here." Hermione said, pointing at Katy. Hermione's voice broke the incredulous silence that followed Black's pronouncement.

"Well," Lupin began, "she came running into my office this evening. Just as I had noticed Peter on the map with you. I don't actually know why she came."

"You're all mental." said Ron.

"**Peter Pettigrew's dead!" said Harry. "He killed him twelve years ago!" He pointed at Black, whose face twitched convulsively. **

"**I meant to," he growled, his yellow teeth bared, "but little Peter got the better of me… not this time, though!" **Sirius lunged at Ron.

"**Sirius, NO!" Lupin yelled, launching himself forwards and dragging Black away from Ron again, "WAIT! You can't do it just like that — they need to understand — we've got to explain —"**

"**We can explain afterwards!" snarled Black, trying to throw Lupin off. One hand was still clawing the air as it tried to reach Scabbers, who was squealing like a piglet, scratching Ron's face and neck as he tried to escape. **

"**They've — got — a — right — to — know — everything!" Lupin panted, still trying to restrain Black. "Ron's kept him as a pet! There are parts of it even I don't understand, **and Sirius, you owe Lucie and Harry this explanation. You owe it to them."

**Black stopped struggling, though his hollowed eyes were still fixed on Scabbers, who was clamped tightly under Ron's bitten, scratched, and bleeding hands. **

"**All right, then," Black said, without taking his eyes off the rat. "Tell them whatever you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for…"**

"Don't you dare." Katy said. "Don't you dare commit any murders. You are not going back to prison, whether the murder is justified or not." Katy was shaking.

"**You're nutters, both of you," said Ron shakily, looking round at Harry and Hermione for support. "I've had enough of this. I'm off." **

**He tried to heave himself up on his good leg, but Lupin raised his wand again, pointing it at Scabbers. **

"**You're going to hear me out, Ron," he said quietly. "Just keep a tight hold on Peter while you listen." **

"**HE'S NOT PETER, HE'S SCABBERS!" Ron yelled, trying to force the rat back into his front pocket, but Scabbers was fighting too hard; Ron swayed and overbalanced, and Harry caught him am pushed him back down to the bed. Then, ignoring Black, Harry turned to Lupin. **

"**There were witnesses who saw Pettigrew die," he said. "A whole street full of them…" **

"**They didn't see what they thought they saw!" said Black savagely, still watching Scabbers struggling in Ron's hands. **

"**Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter," said Lupin, nodding. "I believed it myself — until I saw the map tonight. Because the Marauder's map never lies… Peter's alive. Ron's holding him, Harry." **

**Harry looked down at Ron, and as their eyes met, they agreed, silently: Black and Lupin were both out of their minds. Their story made no sense whatsoever. How could Scabbers be Peter Pettigrew? Azkaban must have unhinged Black after all — but why was Lupin playing along with him? **

**Then Hermione spoke, in a trembling, would-be calm sort of voice, as though trying to will Professor Lupin to talk sensibly. **

"**But Professor Lupin… Scabbers can't be Pettigrew… it just can't be true, you know it can't…"**

_The Shrieking shack! What do you guys think? I had like twelve versions of this... sometimes only katy was there, sometimes only Lucie. _

_Please, please review!_

_- Lily_


	14. Book Three: Chapter 8

_So I'm not going to spend the next five hours attempting to change every little thing in the rest of the shrieking shack scenes so that it works with two new characters because the explanation is still exactly the same. So I'm skipping to the end of it. But to sum it up for those of you who haven't got it memorized, Snape comes in; Harry, Ron and Hermione knock him out; Lupin and Sirius force Peter to show himself; Lupin and Sirius finish telling the story._

**Chapter 8**

"**Believe me," croaked Black. "Believe me, Harry. I never betrayed James and Lily. I would have died before I betrayed them."**

Lucie's eyes were full of tears. Never in her wildest dreams had she expected an explanation like that.

"**No!" **

**Pettigrew had fallen to his knees as though Harry's nod had been his own death sentence. He shuffled forward on his knees, groveling, his hands clasped in front of him as though praying. **

"**Sirius — it's me… it's Peter… your friend… you wouldn't —" **

**Black kicked out and Pettigrew recoiled. **

"**There's enough filth on my robes without you touching them," said Black. **

"**Remus!" Pettigrew squeaked, turning to Lupin instead, writhing imploringly in front of him. "You don't believe this — wouldn't Sirius have told you they'd changed the plan?" **

"**Not if he thought I was the spy, Peter," said Lupin. "I assume that's why you didn't tell me, Sirius?" he said casually over Pettigrew's head. **

"**Forgive me, Remus," said Black. **

"**Not at all, Padfoot, old friend," said Lupin, who was now rolling up his sleeves. "And will you, in turn, forgive me for believing you were the spy?" **

"**Of course," said Black, and the ghost of a grin flitted across his gaunt face. He, too, began rolling up his sleeves. **

"No!" Pettigrew squeaked again. "He would have told her!" He pointed a shaking finger at Katy. "He would have told his wife!"

"No –" Katy said slowly, taking a step toward Pettigrew, rage was radiating off of her towards him like a knife. "No he wouldn't. He suggested changing to you because he knew the Death Eaters would go after _him_. There's a good chance the Death Eaters would have gone after me to force either me or him to tell on threat of my death." Black gave Katy a grim smile. Lucie felt her heart ache. That was supposed to be her family. And this man groveling on the floor had insured she hadn't gotten her family. Lucie was overcome with the distinct urge to kick him as hard as she could.

"**Shall we kill him together?" **Black asked Lupin.

"**Yes, I think so," said Lupin grimly. **

"**You wouldn't… you won't…" gasped Pettigrew. And he scrambled around to Ron.**

"**Ron… haven't I been a good friend… a good pet? You won't let them kill me, Ron, will you… you're on my side, aren't you?" **

**But Ron was staring at Pettigrew with the utmost revulsion. **

"**I let you sleep in my bed!" he said. **

"**Kind boy… kind master…" Pettigrew crawled toward Ron "You won't let them do it… I was your rat… I was a good pet…" **

"**If you made a better rat than a human, it's not much to boast about, Peter," said Black harshly. **

**Ron, going still paler with pain, wrenched his broken leg out of Pettigrew's reach. Pettigrew turned on his knees, staggered forward, and seized the hem of Hermione's robes. **

"**Sweet girl… clever girl… you — you won't let them… Help me…" Hermione pulled her robes out of Pettigrew's clutching hands and backed away against the wall, looking horrified. **

**Pettigrew knelt, trembling uncontrollably, and turned his head slowly toward Harry. **

"**Harry… Harry… you look just like your father… just like him…" **

"**HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO HARRY?" roared Black. "HOW DARE YOU FACE HIM? HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT JAMES IN FRONT OF HIM?" **

"**Harry," whispered Pettigrew, shuffling toward him, hands outstretched. "Harry, James wouldn't have wanted me killed… James would have understood, Harry… he would have shown me mercy…" **

**Both Black and Lupin strode forward, seized Pettigrew's shoulders, and threw him backward onto the floor. He sat there, twitching with terror, staring up at them. **

"**You sold Lily and James to Voldemort," said Black, who was shaking too. "Do you deny it?" **

**Pettigrew burst into tears. It was horrible to watch, like an oversized, balding baby, cowering on the floor. **

"**Sirius, Sirius, what could I have done? The Dark Lord… you have no idea… he has weapons you can't imagine… I was scared, Sirius, I was never brave like you and Remus and James. I never meant it to happen… He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named forced me —" **

"**DON'T LIE!" bellowed Black. "YOU'D BEEN PASSING INFORMATION TO HIM FOR A YEAR BEFORE LILY AND JAMES DIED! YOU WERE HIS SPY!"**

Katy let out a little gasp of pain when Black named Lily and James. Lucie's mind was reeling. Her emotions had been overloaded and she felt faint. She needed to sit down or she really was going to faint.

"**He — he was taking over everywhere!" gasped Pettigrew. "Wh-what was there to be gained by refusing him?" **

"**What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who has ever existed?" said Black, with a terrible fury in his face. "Only innocent lives, Peter!" **

"**You don't understand!" whined Pettigrew. "He would have killed me, Sirius!" **

"**THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" roared Black. "DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!" **

**Black and Lupin stood shoulder to shoulder, wands raised. **

"**You should have realized," said Lupin quietly, "if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. Good-bye, Peter." **

**Hermione covered her face with her hands and turned to the wall. **

Lucie couldn't help but have the opposite reaction. She glared down at Pettigrew, not exactly eager, but definitely ready to watch the life end of the man who had effectively ended her father's life.

"**NO!" Harry yelled. He ran forward, placing himself in front Pettigrew, facing the wands. "You can't kill him," he said breathlessly. "You can't." **

**Black and Lupin both looked staggered. **

Lucie looked up at her mother, Katy's face mirrored that of Black and Lupin.

"**Harry, this piece of vermin is the reason you have no parents," Black snarled. "This cringing bit of filth would have seen you die too, without turning a hair. You heard him. His own stinking skin meant more to him than your whole family." **

Hearing her father talk about family made Lucie's whole body seize up and she could feel herself losing balance. She felt herself falling over and her stomach felt woozy. There was only so much that she could take in one evening. Lucie collapsed on the floor, falling too heavily to stop herself. She felt her head slam down on the hard wood floor and then everything went black.

_(switching to Katy's point of view, don't worry, Lucie didn't like get a concussion and forget everything.. haha)_

"Lucie!" Katy gasped and knelt down on the floor where her daughter had just fainted. Katy sat down and pulled Lucie's unconscious body onto her lap and tears began to fall down Katy's face as they had so many times already that night. Katy looked up from Lucie and saw that Ron and Lupin were chaining themselves to Peter and Snape was being Levitated up into the air. The cat, Crookshanks as Sirius had called him, led the way out of the Shrieking Shack and back into the passage. Ron, Remus and Peter followed. Hermione was behind Ron and Sirius was Levitating Snape ahead of him. Harry went after Sirius and Katy followed last, cradling Lucie in her arms. Before getting into the passage, Katy cast a Charm on Lucie to make her weightless, enabling Katy to move much more easily through the low passage.

"**You know what this means?"** Sirius said, turning towards both Harry and Katy. **"Turning Pettigrew in?"**

"**You're free." said Harry.**

"**Yes…" said Black. "But I'm also — I don't know if anyone ever told you — I'm your godfather." **

"**Yeah, I knew that," said Harry. **

"**Well… your parents appointed me your guardian, **or rather, they appointed us guardians." Sirius said stiffly, pointed to himself and Katy.** "If anything happened to them…" **

**Harry waited. …**

Sirius looked at Katy and Katy knew in an instant what he wanted to do. She smiled at Sirius, of course Harry should live with him, with them.

"**I'll understand, of course, if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle," said Black. "But… well… think about it. Once my name's cleared… if you wanted a… a different home…" **

"**What — live with you?" he said, accidentally cracking his head on a bit of rock protruding from the ceiling. "Leave the Dursleys?"**

"**Of course, I thought you wouldn't want to," said Black quickly. "I understand, I just thought I'd —" **

"**Are you insane?" said Harry, his voice easily as croaky as Black's. "Of course I want to leave the Dursleys! Have you got a house? When can I move in?"**

The eagerness in Harry's voice made Katy feel distinctly suspicious. What had Lily's sister done to him to make him want to leave so badly?

**Black turned right around to look at him; Snape's head was scraping the ceiling but Black didn't seem to care.**

"**You want to?" he said. "You mean it?" **

"**Yeah, I mean it!" said Harry.**

Sirius smiled broadly at Harry. Seeing that smile was too much for Katy and she could feel herself beginning to cry again. How many times had she seen that smile? How long had it been since she had seen it outside of a dream? How much did she miss that smile?

"Sirius," Katy beamed at him. "I..." She was at a loss for words. She had almost never been at a loss for words around him before. She didn't know what to say, there were too many emotions boiling inside her.

"Tell me about Lucie." Sirius said and he smiled again. "She looks like you, doesn't she? Is she like you?"

"She is me." Katy breathed out. She hadn't realized she had been holding breath trying to decide what to say. "You're going to think you've gone back in time when you see her." Katy started to laugh. "I can't believe you're going to meet her. At last."

"I've met her." Sirius said quickly. "I never forgot her. I will never leave her again. And I will never leave you again."

Katy would have kissed him then and there if they hadn't reached the end of the tunnel. They all climbed out and began to head back toward the castle where they would finally free Sirius for good.

Suddenly Sirius put his hand out to stop Harry, Hermione and Katy. Katy didn't understand at first but she followed Sirius' gaze which was on Remus. He had gone rigid. After a split second he began to shake. Katy looked up at the sky and realized with horror that the full moon was out. And Snape had said Remus hadn't taken his potion. That meant he was about to turn into a fully-fledged, man-eating monster in a matter of minutes.

"**Run," Black whispered. "Run. Now."**

Katy watched, horrified, as Remus turned into a beast. She had never seen him in his werewolf form before and was very happy to have it that way. The werewolf was the most terrifying thing she had seen in a very long time and one of the worst moments of her life. Katy clutched Lucie closer to her body. Sirius transformed back into the big black dog that had haunted Katy's dreams for twelve years.

Sirius ran towards the werewolf, Katy couldn't think of that creature as Remus, and pulled him by the neck away from the group of people. Then Hermione screamed and Katy watched as Peter put some sort of jinx on Ron which knocked him unconscious and then transformed into a rat and disappeared. She was terrified she was going to have to witness Sirius being torn limb from limb by a werewolf and now any chances of saving Sirius were gone because their only proof was gone as well.

"**Sirius, he's gone, Pettigrew transformed!" Harry yelled. **

Katy could feel the physical pain that Sirius himself must have been feeling when she saw that he had been clawed and scratched at and was bleeding. After hearing Harry's words, Sirius, still in his dog form, ran off in the direction of the woods where both the werewolf and Peter had gone.

Katy hurried over to Ron, as Harry and Hermione had done as well. Katy set Lucie down and undid the Charm to make her weightless.

"**What did he do to him?" Hermione whispered. Ron's eyes were only half-closed, his mouth hung open; he was definitely alive, they could hear him breathing, but he didn't seem to recognize them. **

"**I don't know…"**

"I don't know that spell." Katy said quickly. She felt like she should know it, she probably used to know it, Peter must have learned it from the Death Eaters. "We need Dumbledore." Katy said resolutely. "He can fix this. He can fix anything." Katy stumbled to her feet. "Stay with Ron." Katy was beginning to almost envy Lucie, peacefully unconscious on the ground. Katy was feeling a little faint herself but she stumbled away from the group and back up towards the castle.

Katy stumbled and tripped over her own feet at least a dozen times on her way across the grounds. By the time she got back to the castle, her face and arms were covered with little scratches and she was bleeding. She had no idea how long it had taken her, but it had taken an appallingly long time.

Katy must have looked like she had been attacked. She was panting for breath, bleeding and pale as a ghost. Katy's first instinct was Maddie. When Katy had flooed into Hogwarts, they had come out in the Hospital Wing and Katy had left Maddie there because Madame Pomphrey had been there. Katy barely made it up all the stairs and into the Hospital Wing before she was accosted by Madame Pomphrey, Dumbledore and, much to her surprise, Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic.

"Mummy!" Maddie cried and ran as fast as her little legs could carry her over to Katy. She jumped into Katy's arms and hugged her mother close.

"Katy," Dumbledore said pleasantly as she entered. "I must say, I'm surprised to see you."

"Do you think such pleasantries are necessary?" Fudge looked surprised at Dumbledore. "This woman clearly needs the assistance of Madame Pomphrey, just look at her Dumbledore she's apparently just gone through something incredibly taxing."

"No," Katy rushed towards Dumbledore as Madame Pomphrey swooped in towards her. "Professor, you've got to help. Out on the grounds," She turned, thinking to lead Dumbledore back down to the Whomping Willow. But the door to the Hospital Wing was opening again and Snape entered the room. He had five stretchers with him, each carrying an unconscious body.

What had happened down there? Katy never should have left. She was shaking.

"Black!" Fudge yelped, bringing Katy out of her mind. "That's Black!" Fudge was pointing a shaking finger at the last stretcher. Sirius was unconscious and Snape allowed the stretcher Sirius was on to move towards the Minister of Magic, a triumphant, horrid look on his face.

"No!" Katy said, running over to the stretcher. "No, Minister, Professor Dumbledore, you don't understand. You don't know the whole story."

"We've got him at last." Fudge looked as though he didn't quite believe it himself. "We've caught Sirius Black."

"Out of my way!" Madame Pomphrey shrieked, taking control of the other four stretchers from Snape and Levitating each unconscious student onto a bed.

Fudge looked almost hysterical with happiness. Before Katy could say another word, Fudge, Dumbledore and Snape had all swept from the room with Sirius in tow.

"No, wait!" Katy yelled after them.

"You need to sit down as well." Madame Pomphrey was glaring down at her and forced her into a bed. "Here, take this." Madame Pomphrey handed Katy what Katy knew was a dreamless sleep potion.

"No, I don't want this." Katy shoved the potion away. "I have to go and talk to Dumbledore. I have to tell him the truth."

"You don't have to do anything except drink this." Madame Pomphrey said severely. Madame Pomphrey pointed her wand at the Hospital Wing door. "You take this or I am locking you in."

"No." Katy began to shake again.

"You are unwell." Madame Pomphrey said softly.

"I'm fine. But I have to save Sirius!"

"Sirius Black?" Madame Pomphrey looked shocked. "You don't want to save him, he's a murderer! Did he put a spell on you?"

"No he didn't." Katy frowned at her.

"I have to help my students. If you try to get up again, I will be forced to restrain you." Madame Pomphrey said. Katy opened her mouth to respond and Madame Pomphrey swooped down and dumped the dreamless sleep potion down Katy's throat. Katy could feel herself losing consciousness and she was unable to do anything to resist it.

_Another chapter, the end of the Shrieking Shack! _

_please, please review! _

_Love, Lily_


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